Knowing what happened is no longer adequate. Leaders say they need to know what is happening now, what is likely to happen next and what actions they should take. Smart analytics driven by intelligence data analysis can help us know what we know, and significantly, what we don’t.
Data analysis and information used to be a river, flowing in one predictable direction with a visible source. No more. Today, it's a roiling ocean of data, constantly expanding its shores.
Fifteen petabytes of data are created everyday. What if we could turn all of that data, videos, pictures, text, blogs, market movements and transactions into smarter information for better decisions? How do we do that? It can be a daunting task for any enterprise to sift through and undertake massive data analysis, extracting information and transforming it into actionable knowledge. But action without data analysis is just guessing.
The globally integrated enterprise needs something more powerful. Today's information management and data analysis tools offer situational awareness and predictive abilities. This "new intelligence" combines human cognition with computational power, shifting the agenda from "sense and respond" to situational awareness and something very much like prediction.
New intelligence gives us more than a window into enterprise-wide current operations. It provides a likely view of what is just around the corner and even further down the road. Analytics and reporting tools slice and dice data, crystallising trends, patterns and anomalies that yield invaluable business insights to help you drive smarter decision-making. Understanding data patterns is important to industries like healthcare, energy, and transportation. And the more we understand, the more answers we find. That’s why data management and analysis is already helping to lower energy costs, ease traffic and detect diseases faster, all over the world.
New Intelligence, applied well, gives organisations the ability to predict and steer rather than just sense and react to events. It brings together the power of human cognition and computational excellence. It shifts the agenda to situational awareness and prediction: sudden changes in customer demand, loss of a key supplier, new environmental regulations, a new product or service that disrupts an entire industry. And when evaluating the trade-offs inherent in any business decision, New Intelligence enables organisations to calculate rather than guess at likely outcomes.
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It also goes further than hands-free tracking. Companies with a store of real-time information obtained from remote sensors have the opportunity to apply advanced analytics for optimisation. An example: balancing energy efficiency with customer service requirements in a way that advances a particular business strategy. It’s safe to say that in an industry undergoing global realignment New Intelligence is likely to be a prerequisite for competitive advantage.
New Intelligence applies beyond digitised sensors and tags. County governments in one state used advanced analytics to identify analyse and identify acceptable patterns for Medicaid claims submitted by providers; outliers were automatically flagged for further investigation. Private insurance companies pioneered these same methods to eliminate fraud and waste in their payment streams in a way that pays off much more quickly than traditional auditing techniques.
Let’s consider this…The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) used predictive analytics to create a tsunami early warning system that receives and analyses real-time seismic data from the depths of the Indian Ocean and notifies authorities of all tsunamigenic earthquake events within minutes of their occurrence. The smart warning system can also predict the time at which an impending tsunami will occur, as well as its height and severity, allowing the government to issue detailed warnings and instructions to the populations at risk. Whenever a preset threshold is crossed, the system generates alerts and sends them via a satellite-based virtual private network to emergency operations centers, and authorised officials. For confirmed tsunami alerts, INCOIS is equipped to disseminate warnings directly to the public. The smart solution shares information with more than 25 countries in the Indian Ocean region, offering visibility into oceanic events and transforms scientific data into actionable information that will potentially save millions of lives.
Similarly, Bilcare Technologies used smarter analytics to develop a novel non-clonable authentication technology suitable for track, trace, and authentication applications. The non-clonable fingerprint technology can be seamlessly integrated into any supply chain system, providing totally secure and irrefutable real-time product identification and authentication. The new technology helps businesses in the pharmaceutical industry detection counterfeit drugs/goods, create identity management systems, track and trace goods throughout the supply chain and ensure medical compliance - potentially saving millions of lives. The solution can address a diverse range of segments including brand pedigree and identity management in critical areas such as personnel security, personnel authentication and access control system.
Indian Railways, World’s largest railways, also implemented a sophisticated, biometrics-enabled Crew Management System (CMS) to automate the day-to-day management of staffing on board its trains, and reducing risk. CMS provides information about the crew at all times and allocates the crew to different types of trains depending on their driving skills. When there is a crew shortage, the system generates alerts that enable the supervisor to step in and take action. With direct data access over mobile phones, the system also provides greater transparency and visibility of information to the right person at the right time!
Another interesting case is the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) which used predictive analytics to create a national smarter traffic management system which simplifies and streamlines fare payment for riders, giving them a choice of cards which they can also use for other purposes. This new fare processing system allows any Smart Card compliant with Singapore's standard to be used in public transport. Insights drawn from rider data enable LTA to configure more convenient routes, schedules and fares – making public transport more attractive and increasing long-term ridership.
Today’s business leaders face challenges that stand in stark contrast to those of their predecessors, who had the luxury of making strategic and operational decisions on the basis of intuition, and a close circle of advisors. Because New Intelligence thrives on information complexity, simplicity represents lost opportunity, not strategic advantage. Today’s CEOs have entirely new ways to pursue growth, but only if they are also able to pursue an entirely new approach to decision-making. Entering an emerging market? New analytics can quickly provide insights about social and cultural considerations. Integrating operations? Analytics can objectively show outcomes of alternative resource-allocation scenarios.
Early evidence of a pervasive approach to analytics is encouraging. Industry out-performers are eight times more likely than under-performers to pursue business analytics at an enterprise level. Increasingly, smarter organisations will gain advantage by applying New Intelligence to every function, location and department in their businesses, and across every partnership in their business ecosystems.
The author is Director, Strategy, IBM India/South Asia