Big Data, Big Analytics: Emerging Business Intelligence and Analytic Trends for Today's Businesses

The availability of Big Data, low-cost commodity hardware and new information management and analytics software has produced a unique moment in the history of business. The convergence of these trends means that we have the capabilities required to analyze astonishing data sets quickly and cost-effectively for the first time in history. These capabilities are neither theoretical nor trivial. They represent a genuine leap forward and a clear opportunity to realize enormous gains in terms of efficiency, productivity, revenue and profitability.

The Age of Big Data is here, and these are truly revolutionary times. This timely book looks at cutting-edge companies supporting an exciting new generation of business analytics.

• Learn more about the trends in big data and how they are impacting the business world (Risk, Marketing, Healthcare, Financial Services, etc.)
• Explains this new technology and how companies can use them effectively to gather the data that they need and glean critical insights
• Explores relevant topics such as data privacy, data visualization, unstructured data, crowd sourcing data scientists, cloud computing for big data, and much more.

About the Authors

Michael Minelli is a sales and marketing expert with over 16 years of experience in the business analytics solutions space. Currently, he is Vice President of Sales and Global Alliances, Information Services for MasterCard Advisors, where he is responsible for leading sales and strategic alliances that monetize MasterCard’s data assets. MasterCard data assets encompass 1.8 billion cards, representing 34 million merchants in 210 countries and territories. Prior to MasterCard Advisors, Minelli led Revolution Analytics’ sales team. He was responsible for both new business development and strategic alliances for the firm’s software and services offerings supporting the Open Source R project.

Prior to joining Revolution Analytics, Minelli built his foundation and expertise in analytic solution sales and marketing as he served as a Sales Director and Global Account Manager at SAS. During his 11 years in multiple roles at SAS, he built an extremely successful track record selling large-scale analytic projects associated with customer intelligence, risk management, supply chain, and finance.

Prior to joining SAS, he was a sales executive at MMS, a start-up ERP and business intelligence firm (MMS was acquired in 1999 by AMOS).

Big Data, Big Analytics is Michael Minelli’s second book. He is also the coauthor of Partnering with the CIO: The Future of IT Sales Seen Through the Eyes of Key Decision Makers ( John Wiley & Sons, 2007).

Michael holds a BA in Marketing from Pace University.

Michele Chambers holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Nova Southeastern University and an MBA from Duke University. She is an entrepreneurial executive with 25 years of technology experience. Ms. Chambers was formerly the General Manager and Vice President of Big Data analytics at IBM. Her team was responsible for working with customers to fully exploit the IBM Big Data platform including the IBM Netezza appliance via scalable, high performance advanced analytics on IBM Netezza’s parallel computing platform. Ms. Chambers was responsible for guiding the vision, strategy, sales, and go-to-market strategy for IBM Netezza Analytics. Her passion is helping companies identify new areas to apply analytics, especially optimization, that drive high business value and create sustainable differentiation in the market.

Ms. Chambers has a strong focus on results and growth. She has successfully launched several lines of businesses, including the Advanced Analytic Solutions at Netezza, which drove $80 million in revenue in just six months. Additionally, she successfully built a packaged SAP solutions business resulting in over $10 million revenue in the first year and an early supply chain execution software business.

Ambiga Dhiraj is the Head of Client Delivery for Mu Sigma. Mu Sigma is a leading provider of decision sciences and analytics solutions, helping companies institutionalize data-driven decision making. During her career at Mu Sigma, Ambiga has led Mu Sigma’s delivery teams to solve high impact business problems in the areas of Marketing, Supply Chain and Risk Analytics for market-leading companies across multiple verticals. With experience in computer engineering, research, and consulting, she has enabled Mu Sigma to integrate math, business, and technology in a unique manner to develop innovative solutions in the area of decision sciences.