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The Big Deal About Big Data

There’s been a lot of buzz about “big data”, but there’s also a lot of confusion about what it is, what it means, and whether it applies to your business or industry.

Here are some examples of Big Data in action:

  • My supermarket loyalty card allows Woolworths to track my buying habits and make specific recommendations for products based on those habits.
  • Microsoft is recommending its Kinect system, which was devised for video games, to retailers to recognise and track shoppers in retail stores.
  • The Guevara car insurance company allows groups of safe drivers to band together for lower insurance premiums.
  • “Robo-advice” in the financial planning industry allows software to create financial plans for clients – and learn from performance to deliver even better plans in the future.
  • The Alivecor device is an iPhone attachment that allows cardiac patients to take their own ECGs – and eventually the software will be able to predict heart attacks and strokes before they occur.

I covered these examples – and more – in a recent webinar, which will help you discover what you need to know now about big data to future-proof your business.

After the webinar, I asked participants “What was the most useful thing you learned today?” Here are some of their answers:

“Understanding the term Big Data”

“The extent of possible uses of Big Data”

“There isn’t much we can do about the collection of so much data, so why not use what is available on the public arena, to our advantage!”

“Big data is here and we had better figure out how to work with it”

“Book: Connected”

“How technology is advancing”

“The world is heading towards Minority Report where the shops scan the shoppers and they receive targeted offers. I love it!”

“Good explanation of machine learning”

[future-proof-promo]

What Next?

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