Independent publication by raconteur.

net # 0324 23 / 06 / 2015

THE DATA ECONOMY

03 Data analytics defines 06 08 12
Even small How to make It’s time to
firms can data work for switch on the
and decides business think big data your company internet of things
Data analytics is not only labour-saving and cost efficient, Small and mid-sized businesses are Sophisticated software is now discovering Machines connected to the internet will
its predictive power can drive business forward catching up with bigger enterprises insightful ‘secrets’ for decision-makers open up lucrative revenue streams
RACONTEUR | 23 / 06 / 2015
It is not only labour-saving and cost efficient, the predictive power of data analytics
OVERVIEW
CHARLES ORTON-JONES
M
arks & Spencer is a popular
place to work – too popu-
lar, in fact. Each year the
company receives 225,000
applications for around 35,000 vacan-
cies. The human resources team can’t
sift through this volume by hand. Since
they refuse to dump half in the bin – once
practised by a bank on the grounds that
“No one wants to work with unlucky peo-
ple” – the only way to do the job is use
data automation.
Candidates fill out an online form,
inputting qualifications and answer-
ing basic interview questions. Then a
data-analytics programme filters can-
didates into tiers of quality. The best
candidates are identified using a wide
combination of metrics depending on the
job. Human resources can then interview
the very best. The data-based method is
fast – an interview can be booked within
35 minutes of starting the application.
The software used by M&S for the task is
run by WCN, a specialist in e-recruitment
software. WCN head of global sales Samir
Khelil says: “The bespoke WCN system
allows M&S to have only two human
touch-points during the entire process,
posting the vacancy and meeting man-
Distributed in
In association with
BUSINESS
Although this publication is funded through advertising and sponsorship, all editorial
is without bias and sponsored features are clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule,
partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 3428 5230 or e-mail
info@raconteur.net
Data analytics defines
and decides business
can drive business forward
agement for an assessment, saving both
time and money. Enabling M&S to keep
the candidate engaged throughout has
proved successful as its candidate experi-
ence is rated at an incredible 98 per cent.”
The M&S story is just one of the extraor-
dinary ways in which data is now dom-
inating business processes. Scarcely a
single area of business is untouched.
Data analytics is used to stock super-
market shelves. Once upon a time a store
manager would look at cabbage sales and
make a guess at the number needed for
tomorrow. Today, algorithms examine
historic cabbage sales data going back
years. They factor in sales of other prod-
ucts, promotions, the weather, the day of
the week and dozens of other data sourc-
es. The result is a daily prediction for cab-
bages based on facts, not gut instinct.
Blue Yonder does the predictions for
the Otto supermarket chain in Germa-
ny. It makes five billion forecasts a year
for Otto, using 300 million records a
week and factoring in 200 variables
each time. The forecasts are fed into an
automatic ordering system, represent-
ing an incredible labour-saving
approach. Prediction accuracy
rose 40 per cent with Blue Yon-
der’s system, cutting overstock-
ing by 20 per cent. It’s a tough job to
do well. It should come as no surprise
RACONTEUR
Publishing Manager Head of Production
Josh Roberts Natalia Rosek
Managing Editor Digital and
Peter Archer Social Manager
Rebecca McCormick
Design
Alessandro Caire
Vjay Lad
Kellie Jerrard
CULTURE FINANCE HEALTHCARE
Raconteur is a leading publisher of special-interest content and research. Its publications
and articles cover a wide range of topics, including business, finance, sustainability,
healthcare, lifestyle and technology. Raconteur special reports are published exclusively
in The Times and The Sunday Times as well as online at raconteur.net
raconteur.net
that Blue Yonder was founded by the Today voice recognition software lis-
same academics who do the software tens to the text, automatically identify-
at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and ing different speakers, highlighting key
employs more than 80 PhDs, many of sentences and even moments of anger.
whom worked on particle accelerators The written documents are scanned
such as CERN and Fermilab in Chicago. by e-disclosure software, which blasts
through the task in hours. The data-an-
alytics approach saves cash, time and
the sanity of litigation lawyers.
It is simple to find equally produc-
All areas of commerce
tive examples in other fields. There’s a
will hinge on intelligent great case study, which commuters will
use of data – for those love, on how Southern Railways is using
who get stuck in, the telemetry data crunched by analytics
firm Tessella to improve train perfor-
rewards are immense mance, reducing delays by 63 per cent
and cancellations by 66 per cent.
What is perhaps more worthwhile
The legal profession has been utterly is asking why data analytics is still so
transformed by data analysis. A lucra- underused. A YouGov survey, commis-
tive stream of sioned by First Data Merchant Solu-
income was sifting through docu- tions, found that 42 per cent of small
ments during litigation. A team of pa- and medium-sized companies go by
ralegals could take months to examine “feel” rather than using data analytics
tens of thousands of bits of paper. The to find out the preferences, require-
job might include listening to thousands ments and dislikes of their shoppers.
of hours of recorded telephone conver- Almost one fifth of those questioned
said they “do their best” to
use data to research custom-
ers, “but find it difficult to
keep track”.
sations for snippets of dialogue. Agony There are two explanations. The first
for the poor wretch assigned the task. is that many companies don’t know
CONTRIBUTORS
HAZEL DAVIS DEREK DU PREEZ LEO KING DAN MATTHEWS
Freelance busi- Freelance writer, Freelance jour- Journalist and author
ness writer, she he specialises in nalist, formerly at of The New Rules of
contributes to The enterprise software Computerworld UK Business, he writes
Times, Financial and public-sector and IT Europa, he for newspapers, mag-
Times, The Daily IT, and contributes contributes to the azines and websites
Telegraph and The to computing publi- Financial Times and on a range of issues.
Guardian. cations. Forbes.
Images supply by: Getty Images
LIFESTYLE SUSTAINABILITY TECHNOLOGY INFOGRAPHICS raconteur.net/the-data-economy-2015
The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources the
Proprietors believe to be correct. However, no legal liability can be accepted for any
errors. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior consent of the
Publisher. © Raconteur Media
THE DATA ECONOMY | 03
what software is on the market. This is
a pretty reasonable excuse. It’s almost
impossible to gauge what services exist
or what the products do. For example,
did you know that Ordnance Survey
now gets only 5 per cent of its £144-mil-
lion revenue from selling maps? The
rest comes from location-based servic-
es data provision to the private sector.
The OS invested £200 million in boost-
ing its processing power. Not bad for
an institution founded in 1791 to help
guard the nation from Napoleon. Even
the OS admits its obsession with data
takes people by surprise.
The other factor is shyness. It’s hard
to admit that you’ve fallen behind the
times and aren’t comfortable talk-
ing about predictive analytics. This is
absurd. As the data analytics firms will
tell you, it is their job to guide clients
through the tricky bits. Ask for help and
you’ll get it.
Data is clearly the future of business.
All areas of commerce will hinge on in-
telligent use of data – for those who get
stuck in, the rewards are immense.
As Google’s chief economist Hal
Varian says: “I keep saying that the sexy
job in the next ten years will be statisti-
cians. And I’m not kidding.” He’s right
– and it’s vital British businesses are in
the vanguard.
CHARLES MARK SAMUELS
ORTON-JONES Former editor of
Award-winning CIO Connect and
journalist, he was features editor
editor-at-large of
of Computing, he
LondonlovesBusiness. specialises in IT
com and editor of leadership issues.
EuroBusiness.
04 | THE DATA ECONOMY raconteur.net 23 / 06 / 2015 | RACONTEUR RACONTEUR | 23 / 06 / 2015 raconteur.net THE DATA ECONOMY | 05

Data power can drive

BUYING IN TO DATA PROJECTS

Investing in big data is expensive and results Once you have helped other executives

your organisation
can take a long time to materialise. Selling
such projects to the board can be a tough
task for cost-conscious IT leaders.
Former Tullow chief information officer
Andrew Marks says technology chiefs must
focus on value. Rather than aiming to achieve
some sort of ephemeral and poorly articulat-
ed aim, Mr Marks says successful IT leaders
to understand how big data projects work,
Mr Gerrard advises information chiefs to get
sponsorship from line-of-business leaders. A
marketing big data project should be spon-
sored by the chief marketing officer, just like
a finance initiative should be backed by the
chief financial officer.
Jim Anning, who is head of data and

Embedding a data culture and reassuring staff they are not demonstrate clearly how a big data project
will help the business cut its costs.
He refers to the executive of a mining
about to be replaced by a machine are prerequisites of creating company who asked a series of analyst firms
to come in and take a close look at the firm’s
a data-driven organisation data. The analysts were asked to return in a
month’s time and tell the chief information
officer something he did not already know. It
is that kind of evidence, says Mr Marks, which
will help IT leaders prove the value of data.
“Don’t go to the chief executive with some
sort of punt,” he says. “The business won’t
be interested in running a big data project
for the sake of it. You need a strong case
around value. But to identify those sorts of
opportunities, you’ve really got to know your
business.”
And when it comes to IT, no one knows the
power of big data better than the technology
chief, says Yodel chief information officer
Adam Gerrard. “Be the initial sponsor yourself
– do the sales pitch and explain the potential
business benefits,” he says. “Get everyone on
the same page by explaining the costs and
the potential paybacks.”
analytics at British Gas Connected Homes,
recognises that to become a data-driven
organisation does take a leap of faith.
Companies need to start investing in
collecting and storing data, and building
the people capabilities to make sense of
the information, long before they know the
potential value.
“Pushing this sort of project through a
traditional business-case process can be
tough,” says Mr Anning, adding that the
adoption of an agile approach can help. “We
used open-source tools, which didn’t require
too much up-front cash investment, to start
demonstrating value. As we gained traction
and trust we began building out a more
robust data platform and investing in talent
to make the most of it.”
He says British Gas took a far-sighted
approach with Connected Homes, setting up
a separate startup organisation within the
business and giving his team the freedom
to innovate. “There’s a high level of buy-in
to what we are doing and it’s delivering
results,” he concludes.

190,000 data scientists by 2018 in the

United States alone. Strahan Wilson,
chief financial officer of food retailer
EAT, says the skills gap is a real concern.
“The skills for predictive forecasting
are very specific and very technical,”
he says. “We lack the skills in-house to
of big data

77% 47%
build the model and, even if we paid seen as
jobs are
someone to build it, we don’t have the very hard
considered
skills to maintain it. But not only that, to fill
hard to fill
we don’t have the skills to manage some-
one with those abilities because they are
so specific.” Source: The Tech Partnership/SAS
Mr Wilson and his colleagues at EAT
DATA POWER chose to work with third-party specialist
big data implementation at an invest- is correct. Demand for big data special- Blue Yonder. He says it is important to
MARK SAMUELS ment bank. Operations staff at the ists is set to rise 160 per cent between engage with partners who provide not of chief

I
bank, who dealt with issues such as 2013 and 2020, according to The Tech only the technology, but also take re- executives

t is easy to understand why some settlements, reconciliations and re- Partnership. The IT industry body es-
employees are suspicious of big porting, were concerned they were timates there will be around 56,000 job
data. While executives continue to about to be replaced by a management opportunities a year for big data special-
hype the term to almost cacopho- information system. ists by the end of the decade.
nous levels, there is a dearth of evidence “The point to make is that technol- Companies are, therefore, making
to prove the business benefits of costly ogy should empower rather than re- more use of data and this trend is only
technology implementations. place people,” says Mr Cooke, who is likely to continue. Take Abi Somorin,
Research by the Economist Intelli- also head of the data science practice at senior IT manager at beachwear re-
gence Unit suggests many companies GFT. “Rather than having to spend time tailer Orlebar Brown, who says bench-
have invested significantly in gathering trawling through data to find the answer marking data – in terms of customer
vast amounts of data. Yet 57 per cent of to questions relating to trades, the op- trends and competitor sales – can
employees believe their organisation erations staff at the bank can ask direct be hugely valuable.
does a poor job of
capturing and dis-
questions through
the big data platform
“We need to be aware of how prod-
uct lines perform, both by time of year
seminating impor- and find immediate and across specific regions,” he says.
tant business data. There is one problem – answers for the board “Every part of our business, such as
To allay employ- it can be difficult to or the regulator.” sales, production and finance, will look
ee fears and to help Business leaders, at that data in a slightly different way.
create the informa-
find highly qualified then, must demon- There’s an ever-changing demand for
tion that can pro- analytics experts strate how big data analytics, and it’s something I must
duce a competitive tools are not neces- always consider in terms of technology
advantage, business sarily a like-for-like and resources.”
leaders must focus on embedding replacement for staff. In fact, former Smart business leaders, such as Mr
a data culture within the company. Tullow Oil chief information officer Somorin, recognise the importance of
But how can executives create a data- Andrew Marks says it is important to big data and work hard to win the trust
driven organisation? recognise that the rise of big data does of reticent employees. By employing
The answer, according to industry ex- not have to mean a set of long-standing big data specialists, companies can gain
perts, is to find senior organisational job roles are on the way out. new insights that boost worker produc-
support for initiatives and to demon- “Show me the examples where jobs tivity. There is, however, one problem –
strate the long-term value of an ini- have been destroyed as a result of using it can be difficult to find highly qualified
tiative. The starting point must be to big data,” he says. “What will happen is analytics experts.
convince suspicious employees that big that we will all become better skilled at The CBI says 39 per cent of UK busi-
data can have a positive impact on the using data and people will be employed nesses are struggling to recruit staff
nature of work. in different jobs. And there are already with the advanced science, technology,
Jon Cooke, a member of cross-indus- examples of where the use of big data is engineering and maths (STEM) skills
try body the Data Innovation Working helping to push demand for people.” they need. Consultants McKinsey pre-
Group, was recently involved with a Industry evidence suggests Mr Marks dict a shortfall of between 140,000 and
sponsibility for delivering the skills nec-
essary for data analytics to drive value.
Yodel chief information officer Adam
Gerrard, who is running his own in-
ternal big data project, also recognises
that outside help can prove crucial. He
started the initiative in summer 2014
and worked with external consultants
to help scan the market, evaluate the
technology and match IT systems with
business requirements.
“You need to get the right people in
the room and find a blend of skills,” says
Mr Gerrard. “At Yodel, our approach has
been about getting people who under-
stand why the business needs data and
finding experts with the skills to help us
make the most of that information.”
The big data initiative at Yodel, which
makes use of Teradata software, has
simplified reporting processes across
the organisation. The technology helps
executives to make smarter decisions
through real-time data for key areas
such as revenue and finance.
After working with expert consultants
during the initial set-up phase, Mr Ger-
rard has developed an in-house team
of eight business intelligence experts
who have helped prove the benefits of
big data. “It will now be much easier to
justify the funds to grow this team if the
rest of the organisation is keen to gain
further insight in other business areas,”
he says.
Jim Anning, who is head of data
and analytics at British Gas Connect-
47%
think all
staff have
access to
the data
they need
of business leaders acknowledge they
65% are at risk of becoming uncompetitive
unless they embrace new data analytics
technologies
ed Homes, is another executive who
has strived to prove the value of in-
formation. Connected Homes is a
specialist unit that has been set up
to investigate the use of big data and
smart technology.
“Being able to gather, understand
and use data is central to the prod-
ucts and services we create,” says Mr
Anning. “The real prize is to be able to
use data in real time to feed algorithms
that directly impact the day-to-day
customer experience.”
Connected Homes has built a team
focused on the competencies of analyt-
ics, data science, data engineering and
data operations. It requires significant
investment to develop such a team with
a broad range of specialisms. Yet Mr
27%
of
employees
agree
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit/Teradata
Source: Capgemini/EMC
Anning says he is lucky to work in an en-
vironment that welcomes, rather than
resists, data-driven thinking.
“The real value comes from using the
data, at scale, to do things that have not
been done before. For example, we use
machine-learning to pick up patterns
that indicate a customer’s central heat-
ing boiler may be at risk of failing in the
near future,” he says.
“A connected boiler generates over
four million data points from its internal
sensors every year – that’s more than a
human could process. But using the
data-driven techniques at our disposal,
and our team of service advisers and
boiler engineers, we can provide a pro-
active service to customers. It’s good for
them and it’s good for us.”
06 | THE DATA ECONOMY raconteur.net 23 / 06 / 2015 | RACONTEUR RACONTEUR | 23 / 06 / 2015 raconteur.net THE DATA
TUESDAY 3 MARCH | RACONTEUR
2015ECONOMY | 07

COMMERCIAL FEATURE

SME DATA REVOLUTION

HAZEL DAVIS Smaller firms think big data
COPY DATA
F
or too long big data has been
viewed as the preserve of large

IS BIG DATA’S
corporations. But research from More small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are catching up with bigger businesses to make
Dell suggests that 96 per cent
of small and mid-sized businesses now data work for their company IDC found that organisations have anywhere between 13 to 120

have a defined big data agenda.
In fact, big data could be the cheapest
way to tackle the big guys, says Bertie
Stephens. “When e-tail giants are pour-
ing billions into fulfilment networks,
logistics and technology, there’s no logic
in trying to win on their turf. Big data is
the future of e-commerce because it’s
one of the few playing fields where small
merchants can thrive in a world domi-
nated by multi-billion companies such as
Amazon and Alibaba.”
Mr Stephens is founder and chief ex-
ecutive of Flubit.com, an online mar-
ketplace which generates competitive
offers based on interest in a designated
product, essentially diverting customers
away from Amazon back to small, inde-
pendent retailers.
But a lot of people misunderstand big
data, he says: “There is so much more data
being recorded than ever before. Before,
someone would walk into your store and
you’d track 100 people glancing to the left
and you’d use that data to put things to the
left. It’s about taking the offline idea and
applying it to online.”
Flubit employs six data analysts to
crunch the numbers, but a lot of SMEs
aren’t in that position. The key, Mr Ste-
phens says, is to “be the customer” and
break the data into chunks. “Much of this
can be got from Google Analytics if you
know what you’re looking for,” he says.
“There are many tools out there, but it’s
how you use the data that’s important.”
Mr Stephens uses the analogy of the
Olympic cycling team. “The way they got
better was to make each bit of bike 10 per
cent better and then go back and make
each bit 10 per cent better again. That’s
what you have to do using data in retail.”
He is adamant that using data doesn’t
mean stepping up the snooping. “If you
come to our site, all you can do is ask for a
product. We use the data available about
the market to tailor the service for the user
at that moment. It’s not about getting intru-
sive with the data; it’s about understanding
how the market is reacting,” he says.
The data Flubit analyses then goes back
to its SME clients and makes life easier
for them. “They, in turn, are able to sell
more to us,” says Mr Stephens.
Beringer Tame is a Basingstoke-based
niche digital recruiter, specialising
in finding candidates for positions in
e-commerce and recruitment across
Europe. As the positions Beringer Tame
hires for are not incumbent, they require
complex algorithms in order to find the
right candidate. But the data this brings
up is people-focused, which needs to be
processed by recruiters. By developing
more precise, or more experimental al-
gorithms, the company is able to achieve
new results.
Chief executive Patrick Tame says: “It’s
become impossible to avoid the personal
and professional profiles of candidates.
Almost everyone uses a CV-uploading
service or business and social networks,
creating a huge volume of data. Beringer
Tame, which employs two research an-
alysts, has used these techniques for
ten years and we have collected a large
amount of historical data, which is unu-
sual for a small business.”
It’s also important to recognise that big
data can only get you so far, Mr Tame says,
at least in certain industries. “Headhunt- sarily need armies of resources and we pressed development resources away
ing is all about human relationships, and prove that by being commercially viable.” from reporting into creating new karaoke
our core business is processing human It can be a challenge for a small business services and maximising revenue per
and emotional data, which always eludes to stay on top of huge reams of informa- customer.
large search engines. Despite our strong tion so, says Mr Tame: “It is key that the Mr Thistleton says: “Adopting data
history in research and analytics, our her- data algorithms produce is used smartly visualisation software has also helped
itage lies in a network and pointedly.” change the culture, enabling everyone
of talent across the Lucky Voice, the UK within the company to be more aware of
sector,” he says. provider of interactive business performance.”
Online and cloud-
For the small business it’s karaoke services, has Elsewhere meal delivery company
based platforms, such about not losing sight – adopted a data-driven Hello Fresh might be all about old-school
as Google Analytics, ignore big data at your approach to boost its values of cooking from scratch and eating
Kaggle, Swipley and business. The com- as a family, but it’s all done with the most
Tableau, mean SMEs
peril, but by no means pany uses Tableau’s up-to-date technology. Hello Fresh uses
expect it to be panacea
can access data in- analytics tools to find data to drive decision-making in all parts
sights without making answers to everyday of the company, from developing recipes
huge capital invest- questions in real time. to scoring suppliers or measuring em-
ments. Mr Tame says: “As a niche recruit- As a result, says managing director Nick ployee engagement.
er, it’s important that we use data sets and Thistleton, the company has been able “In particular, we go to extreme lengths
pointed algorithms, but we don’t neces- to grow its revenues, redeploying hard- to contextualise all parts of our customers’
experience in data. As an online weekly
delivery service, it is then possible for us
quickly to isolate the impact of almost
all new customer-facing initiatives,” says
chief executive Ed Boyes. This, he says,
has led to a culture of continuous im-
x2+ provement, “where we are never satisfied
with the status quo”.
Mr Boyes adds: “Being data-driven
Uptake of big data analytics
is forecast to more than is a core tenet of our culture. For many
double between 2012 and 2017
coming into the business, even the word
from 14% to 29% of UK firms
‘data’ can be intimidating so we coach
employing 100 or more staff
staff to understand that data is the tool by
Source: SAS
which we can rapidly generate and meas-
ure improvement, which ultimately leads
to happier customers. This has resulted in
a more democratic decision-making envi-
ronment, where anyone in the team’s sug-
gestion or opinion has equal merit when
rooted in data.”
Hello Fresh co-founder Patrick Drake
agrees. “Running a company without col-
lecting and analysing data is tantamount
to driving with your eyes shut. Subtle var-
iations in an advertising campaign – do
we use a photograph of our recipe box or
a photograph of a couple enjoying their
dinner? – can make a tangible difference
to the success of a campaign,” he says.
“Our recipes can be the difference be-
tween retaining and losing a new custom-
er. Collecting and analysing data means
we can test ingredients, error rates and
even the colour of the buttons on our
website to improve our product constant-
ly. Though ‘data analysis’ doesn’t exact-
ly sound sexy, it’s the driver behind our
greatest innovations.”
Nonetheless, allowing data to define an
SME is dangerous, says Mr Tame. “Funda-
mentally, data is not as powerful, nor as
effective, as intuition or common sense.
While high-tech approaches undoubtedly
add value to the business, they can be a bit
of a rabbit hole and an expensive rabbit
hole at that,” he says.
In the recruitment industry at least, Mr
Tame says: “Data can be extraordinari-
ly misleading and for this reason it will
never replace the traditional role of the
headhunter. This is partly because they
have no control of the data source. Large
companies pay huge sums of money to
dig up data that confirms their own busi-
ness model.”
Big data is very subjective, he says, con-
cluding: “What one person calls it, doesn’t
cut it with another. For the small business
it’s about not losing sight – ignore big data
at your peril, but by no means expect it to
be panacea.”
Share this article or infographic
on social media via raconteur.net
SMOKING GUN
For years businesses have been told to collect as
much data as possible. Big data is the mantra. At
the same time, demanding regulations must be met
with rapid access to data, current and historical
As terabytes turn into petabytes, the surge
in data quantities has sent costs spiral-
ling. Even hard-drive makers are warning
the crunch point is only months away. At
this current rate of production, by 2016
the world will be producing more digital
information than it can easily store. By
2020, we can predict a minimum capacity
gap of over six zettabytes – nearly double
all the data that was produced in 2013.
Just look at that mismatch between
data and storage. For reference, one
zettabyte would fill the storage on 34
billion smartphones.
It’s worth looking at why the problem
exists: the proliferation of multiple data
copies. Consumers make many copies of
data on back-up drives, multiple devices
and cloud storage. Businesses are worse
because of the need to maintain copies
for application development, regulatory
compliance, business analytics and dis-
aster protection. IDC reports 60 per cent
of all corporate disk storage is allocated to
copies of primary-source data.
Case studies
Various case studies show the impact Actifio can have on
enterprises. Take hospitality technology company
Newmarket International, based in Kingston-
upon-Thames. It was struggling to move data
between its Portsmouth and Boston data
centres. Back-up involved IT staff putting
data on tape and removing the tape from
the building each night.
With 12 applications to support and
a move to cloud services for clients, it
opted for a 12-month proof-of-concept
trial with Actifio. The results: a 93 per
cent reduction in storage needs. Back-
up speed was improved from eight hours
to one hour and the data restored was
guaranteed to be no older than 30 minutes.
Under the previous system the data could
be up to 24 hours old. Copies for tests could be
made in hours, rather than days.
copies of data across all of their applications. Gaining visibility and
control over copy data is again paramount for CIOs looking to gain
operational efficiency and agility.
Thinking of this size financially, Gartner tualisation. Actifio is bringing the same
advise IT spend is between 1 and 7 per cent performance leap to data management,
of business revenue, depending on the indus- cutting storage costs by 80 per cent. The
try, and that storage and data management business case is so strong, Actifio was
is on average 20 per cent of that figure. It’s valued at more than $1 billion when rais-
clear to see how the FTSE 100 companies are ing $100 million in Round D investment.
spending a huge amount on the proliferation
of copy data. Copies are increasing five times
faster than primary data and IDC currently
values the copy data market at $44 billion. With Actifio there is a
Typical companies now deal with ten to
single version of the data,
one hundred and twenty duplicate copies
of data, meaning they are spending five which is virtualised for all
times more on the infrastructure manage- other requirements
ment for the copies than on the original
data. Hardware, software, space, energy,
people and time – it’s unsustainable, unde-
sirable, but fortunately easily fixed. The main reason data gets copied is that
Actifio is an expert in the data-manage- multiple business functions and regula-
ment market, solving the entire problem tors need access to it at the same time.
of “data-bloating”. With Actifio there is a For example, product designers, test and
single version of the data, which is virtual- development teams, back-up administra-
ised for all other requirements. tors, finance departments, data-analytics
Companies such as VMware help serv- teams, marketing, sales and more all re-
ers perform more efficiently by using vir- quire data.
Newmarket International’s Ken Wilson says: “From a product
perspective, Actifio is easy to use, easy to set up and easy
to operate on a daily basis.”
Audax, a premier investor in middle-market
companies from the financial services, were
handling extremely large data pools that
needed to be staged, shared, examined,
managed and protected. Audax needed
cost-effective flexibility, simplicity and
scale. The results: significant cost
reductions as much as 75 per cent over
five years.
“Actifio is the first solution robust enough
to handle any type of data management
need, and elegant enough to allow the
business to define service level agreements,
then click auto-pilot and the technology just
works,” says Erik Dubovik, Audax Group’s vice
president of IT.
The old model is to make physical copies
of the original files and send them to every POWERFUL BUSINESS IMPACT
party. It becomes a main activity of the IT
team to create, distribute and manage the
dozens of copies flying around the enter-
prise. Actifio cuts through this by creating
one single physical copy of the primary data
and offering instant access using virtualis-
ation. Network strain is eliminated and IT
staff time managing the data is slashed,
freeing them to concentrate on more busi-
ness-focused activities.
Actifio transforms data management
by applying data virtualisation. As a net
result, data recovery is faster and when • From measuring in days to measuring
it’s complete you know you’ll have the in seconds
latest version. A further bonus is the
saving made in data-management licenc-
es. Companies pay for large numbers of
back-up agents, de-duplication software
and WAN (wide area network) optimisa-
tion tools. End the need to copy data and
you end the need for those licences.
For businesses of all sizes, agility is
the new objective when the discussion
around how to deal with data deluge
arises, whether that translates to time to
market, accelerated application devel-
opment or faster decision-making. True
• 65% lower storage
• 80% lower bandwidth
• 65% lower software cost
agility enables organisations to think
clearly, gain insight and draw informed
conclusions. Transforming physical data
to virtual data provides the power to move
quickly. Data virtualisation creates flexible
and agile infrastructure for the immediate
data access that is so central to excep-
tional business success.
Actifio was founded in 2009 by chief
executive Ash Ashutosh to crack the copy
data storage problem. The company now
helps customers in more than 36 coun-
tries. The goal was to help companies save • Application-centric, SLA-driven
• One platform, all use cases
on storage, on computing equipment and
• Full lifecycle of the data
on software licences. The benefits have
stretched far beyond that. Actifio is set
to change the way companies of all sizes
think about managing their data.
For more details please visit
www.actifio.com
or contact info@actifio.com
08 | THE DATA ECONOMY raconteur.net 23 / 06 / 2015 | RACONTEUR RACONTEUR | 23 / 06 / 2015 raconteur.net THE DATA ECONOMY | 09

How to make data work for your company

Increasingly sophisticated software is discovering more and more insightful “secrets” to enable impactful decision-making

NEXT GENERATION ANALYTICS

trains’ wheels, and can identify sections
DAN MATTHEWS of the track that require an upgrade. WHAT KINDS OF ANALYTICS DO YOU USE IN YOUR COMPANY TODAY? AND THREE YEARS FROM NOW? WHAT KIND OF DATA DO YOU USE FOR ANALYTICS TODAY? AND THREE YEARS FROM NOW? Analytics will obviously become more

L
In another example of the power of an- sophisticated as time ticks on, but it
et’s imagine you’re going to a alytics, IBM’s Watson system has been USING TODAY AND WILL KEEP USING PLANNING TO USE WITHIN NEXT THREE YEARS NO PLANS DON’T KNOW USING TODAY AND WILL KEEP USING PLANNING TO USE WITHIN NEXT THREE YEARS NO PLANS DON’T KNOW will also be more widely available and
birthday party. The person cel- designed to digest large amounts of intelligible. Currently, people through-
ebrating is a 40-year-old male unstructured data and rationalise it to
and he wants presents. You’ve produce sophisticated conclusions. In 70% out an organisation understand, at a
simple level, that sifting data leads to
known this guy for a while and spent one famous case, the software ingested of enterprise organisations already better decisions, but hand them a data
0 50% 100% deployed/plan to deploy data projects
time with him on a semi-regular basis, the whole of Wikipedia and used what it set and they’ll give you an anxious, puz-
compared with
so you know he likes DIY and table ten- “learnt” to outscore two world champi- zled look.
Structured/transational data
nis. He’s also partial to a drop of sherry. on Jeopardy contestants.
He enjoys Will Smith films and he fan- “These systems can process video, 0 50% 100% 56% of small and medium-sized
It’s why investment companies that
make instant decisions about where
Demographic data businesses
cies Emily Blunt. audio, text and a variety of other data to park their cash use MIT maths grad-
Equipped with this all information, sources to help solve a variety of prob- Time series analysis uates, known as quants, and light-
plus details such as his approximate lems, including medical diagnosis, Time series data ENTERPRISES AHEAD IN DATA INITIATIVES ning-quick software to move a split
clothes size, whether he wears glasses detecting insider trading, forecasting Operational intelligence Number of employees second before the market does.
or not and if he likes going out or stay- sales, identifying crime via CCTV and Geospatial/location data <1,000 1,000+ The speed advantage is increasing-
ing in, you are well placed to get him many others,” says Charles Caldwell, a Quality control monitoring ly important in other areas of business
We have already deployed/
something relevant that he’ll make use senior director at Logi Analytics. Log data 9% 16% too, meaning we need information to be
Predictive analytics implemented data projects
of. He doesn’t like “Some of the work accessible and actionable by non-Nobel
scuba diving, so you in this area definitely Prize winners.
Optimisation Open source data
don’t buy a snorkel. feels like something We are in the process of implementing “Powerful analytics tools are needed
Simple. The next step is out of science fiction or pilot-testing data projects 12% 20% by data scientists to discover patterns in
Risk analysis Clickstream data from websites
This, basically, is automation, getting or your favourite con- data,” explains Chris Nott, IBM chief tech-
analytics. It is the spiracy theory. We nology officer for analytics, who oversees
process of collecting
the software to collect can already do some
Web log analytics
External web data We have plans to deploy projects over the Watson programme. “However, ex-
10% 10%
data about a subject the data, process it amazing things,” Fraud analytics
the next 12 months
pectations have shifted as the world has
to help you make into intelligible chunks he says. “Target has Internal text data become always connected and socially
better decisions. Be- developed an algo- Geospatial or locational analysis networked. Business users want access to
and then make small We are considering deploying or
cause Amazon wants rithm that can pre- Mobile app data implementing data projects within the 9% 12% data to get insight themselves now.
to sell you stuff, it adjustments to business dict with 85 per cent Simulation next 13-24 months “Data is no longer going to be in one
makes a note of your operations accuracy if a woman
External social media text data
place. A big driver for many organisa-
activity on the web- is pregnant based Social media analytics tions is building a richer and more com-
site and it offers you on her in-store pur- We are likely to implement big data plete view of customers and their activ-
more stuff you might want to buy. chases. Systems like Watson can read Network analysis Real-time streaming/event data projects in the future but have no 9% 12% ities. While much of this information
specific time-frame in place
Anyone who has a Netflix account, through medical documents and diag- comes from an organisation’s existing
searches with Google or dabbles with nose cancer as good as, or better than, a Prescriptive analytics Machine-generated data and/or IoT business systems, we are seeing a drive
Facebook will have experienced analyt- human doctor.” We have no plans to deploy or to use more data sources, both internal –
Text analytics 44% 30%
ics first hand, offering you films like the The central premise of good analytics Audio data (call recordings) implement big data projects logs, records, documents – and external,
ones you’ve watched before, presenting is to make evidence-based decisions such as social media.
Analysis in data streams
relevant search data or placing advertis- where before we relied on circumstan- Video data (surveillance) “This means that transactional cus-
ing for your particular demographic. tial observations such as “we’ve sold a Link analysis tomer data is being augmented with
But analytics is more than just sell- lot of this stuff, people must like it”. But Source: TDWI Research, 2015 Source: TDWI Research, 2015 insight from the interactions an organ-
ing people stuff. There is a whole world that’s just the beginning. Voice analysis isation has with its customers, their atti-
of data out there just waiting to be For a few years now software devel- “Modern solutions combine all tudes, behaviours and preferences, and
crunched for a better understanding of opers have been moving through the Cognitive computing three kinds of analytics. They use ma- in some cases, location. Of necessity
the world we live in and the way things gears, starting with analytics that is de- chine-learning algorithms and ad- this data will be distributed. Therefore,
work. scriptive (observing past trends), then Video analytics vanced data science to arm business what is needed is governed provision of
WHO IN THE TOP THREE CHALLENGES
Japan’s bullet train system is a tech- predictive (making safer bets on the YOUR ORGANISATION leaders with insights, predictions and and access to data from those sources.”
nological marvel and a good example of future) and now prescriptive (machines Source: TDWI Research, 2015 ORGANISATION ANALYSES recommendations. In turn, this leads A few obstacles stand in the way of an-
75% FACES IN IMPLEMENTING
how analytics can make things better. telling us what is statistically the best DATA USING ADVANCED Business analysts DATA INITIATIVES to better financial and workforce de- alytics’ relentless march. Hitachi’s Mr
With a top speed of more than 180mph, course of action). ANALYTICS ? cision-making,” says Annrai O’Toole, Plumbridge says the big two are today’s
it is one of the safest and most efficient
transport systems ever created. 35% chief technology officer, Europe at
Workday.
storage capabilities and public objec-
tions around privacy.
“Its railways are intricately networked, 56% Security concerns are The next step in this chain is automa- “In a decade’s time, a laboratory in-
TOP THREE IMPACTS DATA WILL Data scientists,
impacting our ability to
using thousands of sensors to collect 9% statisticians and other tion, getting the software to collect the vestigating a cure for cancer may need
petabytes worth of data, which are used HAVE IN YOUR ORGANISATION IN Other scientists quantitative staff
implement a wide-scale data, process it into intelligible chunks data pertaining to patients today. Yet
to update train times and communicate THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
big-data initiative
and then make small adjustments to under data protection regulations, such
in real time any updates which may business operations – orders, marketing data should have been deleted after five
affect the tightly run schedules,” ex-
11%
External partners 29% collateral, store layouts, treatments and years,” he says.
plains Bob Plumbridge, chief technolo- Impacting customer so on – to improve the status quo. “A geologist in 50 years’ time, seeking
gy officer, Europe, the Middle East and
1 relationships
Consolidation of
“The future will be more automation. to identify the causes of global warm-
23% disparate data and being
Africa, at Hitachi Data Systems. Operations 50% able to use the resulting Currently analytics can be used to test ing, would find that large sets of critical
support Business users
“Not only does this system enable data store are difficult different product options or provide data had been deleted decades ago be-
trains to run on time, in 2011 the system broad insights into users,” says Mark cause there wasn’t enough data storage
was responsible for safely terminating
all the trains during the Japan earth- 2
Redefining product 36% Robinson, chief executive of deltaDNA,
a predictive analytics platform used by
space to keep them all.”
These sticky wickets notwithstand-
development System barriers between
quake and tsunami, saving hundreds of 32% games developers. ing, the scope of what we can achieve
Executives departments prevent
thousands of lives.” 45% “This is great for optimisation, but through analytics will increase quick-
collection and correlation
Hitachi analytics helps to maintain IT it still requires interpretation and ly in coming years. Organisations of
33% of data for maximum
train and track integrity on the bullet Data miners impacts input from humans. In the future, ma- all sizes and all intentions will make
trains with its streaming data platform. Changing the way we chine-learning solutions should ad- quicker, more impactful decisions con-
3 organise operations
Sensors attached to the trains feedback vance to make the human intervention structed upon the “secrets” this soft-
Source: DigitasLBi 2015
information about wear and tear on the Source: Accenture 2014 Source: TDWI Research, 2015 Source: GE Ideas Lab, August 2014 required more and more minimal.” ware uncovers.
10 | THE DATA ECONOMY raconteur.net 23 / 06 / 2015 | RACONTEUR
TUESDAY 3 MARCH RACONTEUR | 23 / 06 / 2015
TUESDAY 3 MARCH 2015 raconteur.net LOREM
THE DATA IPSUM| |3
ECONOMY 11

COMMERCIAL FEATURE COMMERCIAL FEATURE

Case study
BIG DATA:
POWER IN NUMBERS?
John Watton, Europe, Middle East and Africa marketing director at Adobe,
explains the opportunities and pitfalls for marketers using data to perfect
personalisation

John Watton
Marketing director EMEA at Adobe
Big data has disrupted the traditional mar-
keting function, giving marketers access
to swathes of information at the touch of
a fingertip. When data is successfully an-
alysed and measured, marketers can gain
insight on customer trends and behaviour
to deliver more personalised experiences.
This knowledge also allows them to be
taken more seriously at board level and
credibly steer business decisions.
Yet growing mountains of data from
customer interactions across multi-
ple touch-points can be overwhelming.
We are no longer talking about giga-
bytes of data, but petabytes, exabytes
and zettabytes.
So how can marketers sift through the
data and turn it into actionable customer
intelligence? Enterprises are facing two
major challenges. The first is gathering
the structured information you have on
your customers from different areas of the
organisation, and making sure marketing,
sales and services interactions are not
delivering siloed, disconnected experienc-
es. The second is managing the massive
amount of unstructured content, such as
social activity and engagement with third
parties, and using it to its full potential.
Modern marketers able to
complement their ability
to interpret data with
emotional intelligence will
be the ones to get the most
from analytics
Bringing together this structured and
unstructured data will create a complete,
contextual view of the customer, allowing
businesses to analyse valuable custom-
er insight regardless of its source and
ASOS
As an e-commerce company, ASOS does
not have the benefits of person-to-person
interaction in a retail setting or face-to-face
format. Yet this data is only useful to mar- interaction with its customers.
keters if they are able to act on it in real However, with eight million active
time, and respond to changing customer customers and tens of millions of monthly
needs and preferences to deliver a per- visits to its website and via its mobile apps,
sonalised experience. ASOS has the ability to sift through large
At Adobe, we recently partnered with volumes of data to look for clues they can
Microsoft to make this easier for enter- use to improve business.
prises, enabling businesses to transform Traditionally, their analysts pulled
fragmented interactions into a single, data from an analytics tool and pieced it
unified customer experience. The partner- together in a way that could be shared with occurred, but also to take action while a
ship offers customers the ability to align business stakeholders. But the tool wasn’t customer is still engaging with the site. The
sales and marketing activities by tightly in- dynamic or reactive enough to support business now relies on analytics maturity –
tegrating audiences and their behaviours, ASOS’s needs. What’s more, the large num- the ability to collect real-time data – to help
ber of site visits and the variety of channels it redefine the way it approaches marketing.
as well as combining web-behaviour data
with other aspects such as order history and devices that customers use to interact For ASOS, focusing on analytics maturity
and loyalty status to identify where a cus- with the site made it a huge challenge to has helped it better understand its custom-
tomer is in the sales cycle. This means the draw actionable customer insights. er and enable its analysts to maximise their
With increased automation, as well as skill-set by freeing up time that can then
right content can be delivered at the right
the ability of Adobe Analytics to run attribu- be spent on other projects. As a result of
time, whether on a landing page, an e-mail
tion and prediction reports, ASOS market- enhancing its analytics capabilities, ASOS
or as an alert through a mobile app.
ers now spend less time reacting and more now better understands its customers,
Consumers tell us time and time again
time predicting and planning for the future which in turn helps to improve key indica-
they are happy to share their data if it results tors, such as conversion rates and revenue.
as well as proactively solving problems.
in more consistent personal digital experi- Adobe Analytics shows cross-channel David Williams, ASOS head of customer
views of customer interactions and supports intelligence, concludes: “The main reason
real-time actionability to influence outcomes. for choosing Adobe was that we were very,
Using this tool, businesses can monitor cam- very impressed with the Adobe Analytics
paigns and promotions, optimise content and capability to do segmentation, to do near-
connect digital channels to the business. real-time reporting, and to change the di-
ASOS now uses Adobe Analytics to not mensions and measures that you’re looking
only gain insights after an interaction has at as you’re actually building the reports.”

ences. For example, offers for restaurants
near their home or films based on what
they’ve watched before. This is backed up by
research carried out by Adobe which found
that the vast majority of people in Europe
(88 per cent)1 want, or are open to, recom-
mendations and personalised experiences
delivered to them in this way.
Personalisation can set brands apart
and is proven to boost sales, but data on
its own will not deliver the perfect brand
experience. Indeed, analytics will help to
identify targets and understand custom-
ers, but it only allows us to see clearly a
small portion of how consumers are really
responding. Often there is a lot more bub-
bling under the surface which needs to be
fully understood.
In the present day and age, there is
an argument that many marketers are
becoming far too data devoted and are
not looking beyond the numbers in front
of them. A growing number in the profes-
sion do not just allow data to inform their
decisions, they allow data to make every
decision for them. Yet when it comes to
personalisation, in particular, poor judg-
ment and ignoring the usual rules for
human engagement could mean they risk
coming across as “creepy”.
There is a fine line between using big
data to deliver targeted marketing mes-
sages and invading consumers’ privacy.
Over-familiarity can be a real turn off for
online consumers. As in the real world, one
person’s friendly nature could be perceived
as over the top by another. Similar to when
you have an over-enthusiastic shop assis-
tant following you around in-store, an intru-
sive brand online could lose your custom.
When using big data for personalisa-
tion, brands need to ensure they do not
misuse the information at their fingertips
and leave consumers feeling stalked or
that their personal space has been invad-
ed. After all, this runs the risk of negatively
impacting the purchasing decision, which
goes against the original objective – cre-
ating a loyal customer base.
Modern marketers able to complement
their ability to interpret data with emotional
intelligence will avoid this indiscretion and
will be the ones to get the most from an-
alytics. To answer the questions big data
When using big data for
personalisation, brands
need to ensure they do not
misuse the information at
their fingertips and leave
consumers feeling stalked
or that their personal space
has been invaded
doesn’t, marketers need to be analytical
and data driven, but also have a good
understanding of the brand, storytelling,
experiential marketing and the level of
familiarity consumers will be receptive to.
The ability to wear two hats is particu-
larly important at a time when marketers
are moving beyond existing digital chan-
nels to include physical experiences in
the real world. It’s an exciting time in the
profession with the arrival of personalised
experiences in shops, hotel rooms and
wearable devices.
The potential to trial new ways of engag-
ing with customers is endless, but until there
is a history of data to show how consumers
typically behave in these new scenarios,
what they will be receptive to and what they
will find too much, marketers will need to
revert back to trusting their instinct. While
technology is available to begin the process
of measuring, analysing and improving
user-engagement in real time, marketers
should be thriving on the opportunity to use
their own judgment to get the balance right
across these new touch-points.
In the information age, brands are using
highly targeted, highly relevant content to
stand apart from the competition. If mar-
keters can manage the juggling act of han-
dling big data to get a single view of the
customer, acting on insights in real time
and looking beyond the numbers to the
bigger picture for how a customer wants
to engage with a brand, they will become
hugely valuable to the business.
Digital marketers are using Adobe Market-
ing Cloud to stay ahead. Find the latest in-
sights, advice and discussions at
blogs.adobe.com/digitaleurope
Adobe Marketing Cloud is also on Twit-
ter @adobemktgcloud
For more information on Adobe
Marketing Cloud, please visit:
adobe.com/uk/marketing
To find full details of the research which
found that the vast majority of people in
Europe want customisation of products,
please visit: www.adobe.com/aboutado-
be/pressroom/pdfs/Click_Here_Re-
gional_Comparisons.pdf
3 - half

12 | THE DATA ECONOMY raconteur.net 23 / 06 / 2015 | RACONTEUR RACONTEUR | 23 / 06 / 2015 raconteur.net THE DATA ECONOMY | 13

COMMERCIAL FEATURE

DON’T LEAVE YOUR

be left behind. Roll forward 20 years and
everyone has heard of IoT, but a lot of
people aren’t quite sure what it is. They
know in their heart that it’s going to be im-

DATABASE BEHIND
portant, but they don’t know what it means
to their industry and they don’t want to be
left behind.”
Despite this excitement and despite all
the noise about billions of connected de-
Continuous delivery brings big business benefits to application vices and huge benefits to the bottom line,
adoption is still low. According to a recent
development – it’s time to give the database the same benefits, says report by Accenture, which surveyed 1,400

Simon Galbraith, chief executive and co-founder of Redgate global business leaders, 736 of whom were
chief executives, only 7 per cent had de-
veloped a comprehensive strategy with
investments to match.
And part of this is down to the level of
maturity in the technology stack, where
vendors are still themselves figuring out
Simon Galbraith what role they play in the market and how
Chief executive and co-founder
they can develop kit, at pace, which allows
customers to take advantage of IoT.
Ben Salama, head of Accenture’s in-

Now’s the time

dustrial IoT division, says that while the
Microsoft’s recent announcement that can gain from continuous delivery, but technology required to roll out an IoT
Windows 10 will be the last big-bang they’re seen as too risky to include in Application continuous delivery deployment is currently on sale in the
market, the challenge for companies lies

$14.4trn
release for the operating system was the process. 6%

to switch on
in knitting all of these distinct pieces
a surprise to many. But what on Earth The result? Application development is 33% 61% together in a cohesive stack that makes
is going on? Why have they suddenly faster, smoother and more cost effective,
sense for each use case. worldwide value of the internet of
turned round and decided to upgrade while database development lags behind. things over the next decade
“The complexity is in the creation of the
In fact, the DZone Guide to Continu-

the internet of
their software with a series of frequent
end-to-end solution. Can you go out and
updates instead? ous Delivery 2015 showed that while 61 Source: Cisco
buy a huge number of industrial quality
The answer is a term not many chief exec- per cent of companies have already im- sensors? Yes. Can you connect those sen-
utives will be familiar with, but an important plemented continuous delivery for their sors to the internet? Yes. Can you extract seen a huge number of vendors, both en- tomer feedback, see what people think.

things...
one nevertheless: continuous delivery. applications, it falls to half that number Database continuous delivery
data from them? Yes. Can you store data terprise providers and smaller startups, Be very agile in the way you iterate on the
Continuous delivery for software ap- when it comes to the database. in the cloud? Yes. Can you report against create their own unique hardware and design to come up with a solution that
plications means that new features can At Redgate, we’ve been working on a way 21%
30% it, build dashboards, run analytics? Yes,” software platforms in an attempt to gain solves a problem. When you hit that sweet
be released faster to resolve the issue says Mr Salama. market share early on. But it is when all spot, roll it out on a wider basis.”
and companies can with a Database Life- “At each step the technology exists. The these systems can talk to each other, ac- Macario Namie, vice president of strat-
be more competitive. cycle Management complexity lies in pulling that together cording to Mr Plumb, that we will see IoT egy at Jasper, an IoT platform company
Although it requires a Clients such as Yorkshire (DLM) solution: one 57% end-to-end. And it’s not helped by the huge truly take off. valued at $1 billion, agrees. He says most
change in processes
Water are seeing a return
that brings all the Machines connected to the internet and hype that is out there around IoT. People “Some of the technology is relatively companies that begin an IoT deployment
and an investment in advantages of con- want to connect every possible thing in new, so it takes time to mature and people are doing it to drive efficiencies in their
the tools that make it on investment of 700 tinuous delivery to Implemented
Want to implement
“talking” to each other is a seismic development sight, but putting the technology together are taking some level of risk,” he says. “But business by, for example, the smarter
possible, the return per cent after investing in the database, while and making it work is a challenge.” at the same time you need interoperable monitoring of their assets. However, once
on investment is high continuous delivery for protecting the data
No plans
which promises to open up lucrative revenue Equally, O2’s digital director David standards. So if Apple they have achieved this,
– and proven. at the same time. Plumb argues that vendors are currently kits are doing one those companies also
streams, but adoption remains low
Source: DZone Guide to Continuous Delivery 2015
The 2014 State of their databases We have some developing technologies and systems in thing and Google’s then start to look at how
DevOps Report from pedigree here. Our SQL Source Control and SQL Compare to silos while they figure out their position are doing another, People want to connect they can use all their
Puppet Labs found tools are already reduce the time it takes to release new in the IoT market. In recent years we have and another vendor IoT data to start offering
is also over there every possible thing in new services to custom-
that high-performing IT organisations that used in more than 90 per cent of For- versions of its website by 50 per cent.
use practices such as continuous delivery tune 100 companies, and are trusted in Property services provider Move INTERNET OF THINGS doing its own thing, sight, but putting the ers, in turn creating new
sensors that constantly delivered you in- and these ‘things’ technology together revenue streams.
are twice as likely to exceed their profita- areas such as finance, healthcare and With Us has also adopted these tools to DEREK DU PREEZ CASE STUDIES
formation on their performance and in- aren’t talking to each Mr Namie says be-
bility, market share and productivity goals. manufacturing, where performance and reduce the cost of releasing database and making it work is

reliability are not optional. updates by 97 per cent. As Anthony Hall,
WHAT ABOUT THE DATABASE? It’s working too. Clients such as York- IT operations manager, says: “We spend
A stumbling block many organisations shire Water are seeing a return on invest- less time deploying and more time devel-
find in their pursuit of continuous deliv- ment of 700 per cent after investing in oping better software, which keeps us
ery is the database. Databases hold continuous delivery for their databases. ahead of our competitors. It results in a
critical information and their stability Similarly, StateServ, a medical equip- product that more closely matches what
is vital to the bottom line. Often they’re ment supplier with customers across the the customer wants, at a cheaper price.
tied into those same applications that United States, has adopted Redgate’s That equals happy customers, a happier
development team and bigger profits for
the company.”
Case study I love comments like that. It demon-
strates that all the effort we’ve put into
Keeping data flowing for Yorkshire water developing our tools and the DLM pro-
cess to go with it is paying off. Not for us
Yorkshire Water manage the collection, – for our clients.
treatment and distribution of water in Yorkshire, By aligning the continuous delivery
supplying around 1.24 billion litres of drinking of the application with the continuous
water daily. At the same time they collect, treat
delivery of the database, a company will
and dispose of about one billion litres of waste inevitably see increased productivity, re-
water safely back into the environment. duced risk and higher quality end-prod-
As might be imagined, their applications and
ucts. This suddenly means that your
databases are diverse and technically challenging, and deploying changes to the databases
technology becomes a strategic advan-
used to be manual and time consuming. The company turned to Redgate’s database
tage, as opposed to an unpredictable
development tools to automate the changes, saving time as well as avoiding errors.
risk, and can be used to deliver real fi-
Using SQL Source Control and SQL Compare, they achieved every aim. In 25 days, they
moved their first project from a manual deployment process to full automation and it now nancial benefits to the business.
takes half a day to start auto-deploying a new project.
As software development team leader Carl Davison says: “It’s now a minor overhead to
deploy. We predict the return on investment to be in the order of 700 per cent over the next Redgate Software, Newnham House,
five years. We can deploy database changes as soon as the business needs them, without Cambridge Business Park,
delays or problems.” Cambridge, CB4 0WZ
Visit www.red-gate.com
Follow @redgate
I
t is estimated that the internet of
things (IoT) represents a total of
$14.4 trillion in value to companies
and industries across the globe over
the next decade. It’s thought that by us-
ing sensors to connect all the physical
things around us to the internet, a whole
new pile of data will be made available to
analyse, identify efficiencies and create
new revenue streams.
For example, a manufacturer may suffer
tens of thousands of pounds in losses every
time they experience some downtime or if
there is a fault with their machinery. Now
imagine that same manufacturer could
equip all of their machines and assets with
sensors connected to the internet, which
spoke to one another and monitored the
factory’s performance on a real-time basis.
This may allow the company to not only be
alerted when the machines are down and
where the problems lie, but it may even be
able to predict an issue before it happens.
Or suppose you’re a company that
traditionally sells printers to large busi-
nesses. Typically you would spend two
to three years developing a new product,
putting it into production, distributing it
to resellers and hopefully making a profit
from those sales.
Once that product is on the market, you
move on to developing the next one. But
what if you could equip your printers with
formed you of their use in real-time? This
WALGREENS
could then allow that printing business
Retailers rely on multiple
to create a whole new division that sold systems to make up their
“printing as a service”, which charges store experiences, all of which
customers for their actual use, delivers use power. Alongside direct
alerts when things go wrong and pro- electricity used to power
items in-store, energy can be
vides on-site maintenance. used by systems such as air
There are endless possibilities and it has conditioning, water, heating,
been estimated that by 2025 the compa- lighting and refrigeration.
nies which have rolled out best-in-class Getting a full picture of how
much power is used by each of
IoT deployments will be up to 10 per cent
more profitable than the laggards. There is
an obvious opportunity for companies to NEW YORK AIR BRAKE
be developing IoT strategies and allocating The $60-billion US rail freight
industry is using Splunk
resources for projects. software to capture a variety
And the potential has permeated the of sensor data right off the
C-Suite with executives wanting to know rails which is being analysed
how they can take advantage of their own in real time. By listening to the
remote sensors installed on
connected network of “things”. Andy
each freight train, New York
Stanford-Clark, a master inventor and Air Brake, a manufacturer of
one of the leads of IBM’s IoT division, says air brake and train control
he hasn’t seen businesses get this excited systems, can analyse train per-
about a technology since the internet first
started to develop. COSWORTH
“We are seeing huge interest from almost Cosworth manufactures low-vol-
every industry you could name, asking ume, high-value engines and
parts for some of the world’s
what is IoT and how does it relate to us? I
premium automotive brands,
often make the analogy when 20 years ago,
such as McLaren. The company
and the internet was young, and people has created an intelligent man-
had a feeling that this was going to be big ufacturing process using sensor
and important, but they weren’t quite sure data, automated robots and
how yet,” he says.
smart simulations.
It has networked all its ma-
“They weren’t quite sure what it meant
chines so they can “talk” to each
to their industry, but they didn’t want to
these networks can be difficult
without accurate sensor data.
US retailer Walgreens
implemented an internet of
things solution with supplier
Riptide IO to collect data from
the networks that were in
place across 5,000 locations.
By collecting data from each
store environment, the retailer
gets a better picture of energy
consumption within each one,
formance and fuel efficiency,
while ensuring that trains are
running to time.
Insights from this data allow
New York Air Brake to make
informed and critically safe
decisions. This might range
from warning a driver to back
off the throttle 5 per cent
to increase fuel efficiency
or alerting an engineer that
gravitational forces threaten to
other and recognise the products
loaded in them, allowing the ma-
chinery to download the appro-
priate instructions and request the
necessary tools for production.
The production line then doesn’t
have to focus on building one
engine for one customer before
moving on to the next; it can work
on multiple products at the same
time, maximising efficiency.
This is to be enhanced through
as well as being able to use
analytics to compare stores
against each other.
The sensor data is stored
within a NoSQL database
cluster from DataStax. Based
on the combination of sensor
data and analytics, the imple-
mentation is estimated to have
saved the firm around $14
million on its power bills in the
first year.
create a dangerous situation a
few miles down the track.
Using Splunk to analyse
sensor data from thousands of
trains has allowed New York
Air Brake to save the US rail
industry $1 billion in fuel costs,
equating to 250 million acres
of forestry in carbon dioxide
emissions.
Cosworth’s collaboration with
smart systems provider Flexeye
and Cranfield University, who are
to create simulations to model
the behaviour of the production
line and define the optimal route
for a particular product to take.
With every product, machine,
robot and tool connected to the
network, Cosworth will be able to
validate suggestions made by the
simulations in real time.
other, that’s a prob- cause of this it is best to
a challenge
lem. The standards start on a small scale, as
need to evolve so that the transition from of-
we have interopera- fering products to offer-
bility. Unless this happens you can’t make ing wrap-around services is a huge cultural
those leaps in improvement.” shift for any business.
However, despite these challenges, given “Where we sit in Silicon Valley, there’s
that the research suggests the companies a culture of starting small, getting out
which get ahead of the curve and figure out into market quickly and then iterating
what IoT means to them will be the ones fast. We generally advise that. Most com-
making bigger profits, there is an incentive panies that have been in the business of
to get a business case together and secure selling products, physical products in
funding for IoT. particular, often don’t realise that the
IBM’s Mr Stanford-Clark suggests that shift to selling a service is a pretty radi-
the best way to get going with IoT and cal one. It’s a very different business and
the best strategy for getting buy-in from most companies don’t appreciate how
the wider business is to start small, prove different it can be,” he says.
the project’s worth and then scale up. He “The expectations of the customer are
argues that this is a better approach than very different and the product manufac-
going all-in with a huge investment that turer now has a responsibility as a service
has the potential to fail and consequently provider – they have to manage the ser-
limit future possibilities. vice experience constantly and it’s a dy-
“The first thing to do is have an IoT namic environment.
strategy. Where do you want to go? Where “We advise companies that are new to
are the places it can add most value? this to get something out in market on a
Rather than doing IoT for the sake of it, much more manageable scale and learn –
figure out where it is going to bring the learn quickly. Start with one market, one
most value to your customers or the ser- product line. Understand the nuances,
vices you offer,” he says. then expand it to other geographies and
“But start small, start with a pilot project, product lines.”
to first of all get people’s heads around
what the art of the possible is for IoT. Get
Share this article or infographic
the first thing up and running cheap and
on social media via raconteur.net
cheerfully, then show it to people, get cus-
14 | THE DATA ECONOMY raconteur.net 23 / 06 / 2015 | RACONTEUR RACONTEUR | 23 / 06 / 2015 raconteur.net THE DATA ECONOMY | 15

OPINION COLUMN

Who owns our data

Solving business infrastructure?
data overload Data infrastructure is as important as our
physical infrastructure – so how should it
An ever-strengthening desire for more data is leaving some
be governed?
businesses with a confused outlook so integrating information
is vital to solve the problem GAVIN STARKS
Chief executive, Open Data Institute

INTEGRATION
tion is kept in standard formats, collation A robust Half use open data
LEO KING
is easier, but the growing complexity of data in- made open by

What if your data...

C
data is quickly putting companies on the frastructure will other business-
ompanies are drowning in data back foot. reduce friction es. Embracing
and most have only a partial “Businesses have to create an integrat- in the economy, this culture

• Could speak for itself?

view into their own operations.
But integrating information
into clearly defined formats of files and
layout gives businesses the ability to
understand their processes and make in-
formed decisions.
Organisations are realising the urgency
of using integration and access software
– defined by analyst house IDC as ena-
bling the access, blending and movement
of data among multiple sources – and by
next year global spending is set to hit $6
billion (£3.9 billion).
“Companies have many sources and
different funnels of information listed in
multiple formats,” says Alys Woodward,
IDC research director, adding that this
has to be addressed.
Businesses have to
create an integrated
view, otherwise it’s not
clear how well they
are performing, how to
mitigate risks and how
to enable people to
collaborate
Philip Howard, research director at
Bloor, adds: “Data integration is like a
road that connects two cities. If you need
two applications to work, they must be
able to communicate.”
In one classic form of integration, a
company may pull together information
on customers, a pipeline of sales, product
types and stock availability. If informa-
ed view, otherwise it’s not clear how well
they are performing, how to mitigate
risks and how to enable people to col-
laborate,” explains Ted Friedman, a vice
president at Gartner.
Many firms begin on the integration
path by writing their own code. As the
scale of the task becomes apparent, they
turn to more advanced tools that graphi-
cally illustrate and automate data.
Regulated industries, such as financial
services and health, tend to be ahead of
the curve in using data integration tools,
Ms Woodward argues, “because of the
requirement to demonstrate what they
are doing”. Telecoms and retail, facing
vast volumes of data, have also taken
large strides.
One company to have pulled together
its many sources of information is large
US hospital alliance Premier. Keith Figl-
ioli, senior vice president, says that given
the prevailing shift to payment based
on quality and efficiency, its 3,400 hos-
pital members have to analyse complex
financial, operational and clinical data
quickly.
The alliance developed a single plat-
form for near-real-time information, pro-
cessing 3,000 data transactions a second.
“We now have the ability to take data
from any of our providers’ transactional
source systems and use it to provide truly
integrated analytics,” Mr Figlioli says.
In the UK, car manufacturer Honda
had a serious challenge as its 200 dealers
used myriad management systems and
file formats. It drew together and for-
matted the information so that it could
better understand customers and sales,
and predict part requirements.
Many businesses tend to favour a tool
called ETL (extract, transform and load).
It enables the process of selectively pull-
ing from various databases, transform-
ing the data into a common format and
merging it. The operation is usually run
in batches.
More recent systems also help com-
panies manage the different interfaces
between applications and visually map
integration from a source database
to the target. Equally, new technol-
ogy can take unconnected data and
learn relationships.
As the technology develops, so does
the severity of the problem it has to
tackle. The somewhat encouraged
growth in unstructured information, as
companies build huge ‘”lakes” of data,
leaves them with a repository of files
that are rarely formatted or linkable.
This leads to serious accuracy con-
cerns, according to Gartner’s Mr Fried-
man. “Companies need to look beyond
the plumbing and think about the qual-
ity of what travels through those pipes,”
he says.
Focused investment in information
governance and quality is the answer.
“Having more technology to help the pro-
cess around data governance and master
data management is the key,” says Mr
Figlioli. The “messy” data in the health-
care industry, he explains, is prompting
large governance investment.
Another challenge is the struggle to
www.etlfactory.com
increase inter- of sharing,
o p e r a b i l i t y, both formal-
collaboration, ly and infor-
efficiency and mally, helps • Could reduce costs by supporting self-
productivity in grow sectors
public and private and, if har- service data access?
sectors, nationally nessed using the
and internationally. power of the web, • Could provide your business partners
The right data environ- can enable peer sup-
ment will benefit everyone, but port to influence returns radi-
or customers with integrated, live
we are yet to have a truly open cally for everyone, improving op- updates twenty-four hours a day?
debate about its benefits and erations, customer interactions,
risks. supply chain efficiencies, and the
The internet has connected quality of products and services.
• Could work seamlessly with apps and
us in ways we couldn’t have im- But this is not just about gov- with APIs?
agined. Countries can respond ernment or business. We need to
quickly to its citizens’ needs, discuss who owns our data infra-
businesses target resources and structure, what roles the public
• Could generate new insights in
compete in global markets, and and private sectors should have, combination with other datasets from
communities share ideas. and what role we as citizens play. inside – or outside - your organisation?
Like our trans- How might it
port and energy be governed
infrastructures, and what are • Could grow and change as your
many groups We need to discuss the social con- business needs change?
have convened tracts between
who owns our data
to create the web each of its
analyse the data quickly. There is a of data. Some infrastructure, what users, given
growing appetite for real-time infor- see data as a roles the public and that the web is
mation, particularly when a customer new raw materi- already global
private sectors should We help our clients, in the public and
is on the phone or a website needs to al, fuelling eco- and our data is
create a recommendation. Correctly nomic growth have, and what role we already almost private sectors, develop integrated
assembled data, combined with pre- and improved as citizens play entirely pri- data solutions centred on open linked-
dictive analytics, are crucial. services; others vatised, often
data standards.
The situation is further complicat- see it as a means by companies
ed by the growth in cloud computing, of building trust in transparent outside of our borders?
which has led to data being held out- governments; and some see the Equally, organisations have to We provide data modelling, data
side company walls. IDC’s Ms Wood- impact of the web over the next 25 be a credible, authoritative and publication and data applications.
ward warns: “Companies need to un- years dwarfing its impact during sustainable source of the data
derstand it may cost them to access the the past quarter of a century. they manage. They need to act
data layer from the cloud provider; or Governments, businesses and responsibly and responsively to Talk to us about your needs.
worse, they may not be able to access communities plan our essential user-needs, and be transparent
it at all.” physical infrastructure, and we about their sources and manage-
The expansion in connected home, should treat data as a core asset. ment. And, organisations that
And let your data speak for itself.
business and city devices as part of the As our physical and digital worlds use data must be able to adapt
internet of things is leading to a large combine, we need to plan our to shifting political, competitive
amount of extra data being located in data infrastructure not just for a and social contexts. It is far more
many places. “It will hugely ramp up healthy digital economy, but as efficient for organisations to
the sort of technology required,” says part of a healthy country. If we design for open systems first and
Bloor’s Mr Howard, “and many of the want the UK to be ‘brilliant at apply restrictions, than to design
connected devices have their own the internet’ as Baroness Martha closed systems and worry about
format for information.” Lane-Fox, co-founder of Lastmin- secure integration later.
As the challenges increase, compa- ute.com, recently called for, we Last month, at the International
nies must invest in both experienced must look at data literacy as part Open Data Conference in Ottawa,
management and advanced technolo- of our future. we initiated a global discussion
gy if they are to pull together all their Diverse businesses already use to prompt governments and or-
data for quickly actionable decisions. open data from both public and ganisations to engage in this Epimorphics Ltd.
private sectors. Our research critical topic.
E:sales@epimorphics.com
recently polled 270 open data It’s time we took our data
businesses in the UK, with a infrastructure as seri-
W:www.epimorphics.com
Share this article or infographic T:01275 399069
combined turnover of £92 bil- ously as our physical in-
on social media via raconteur.net
lion and 500,000 employees. frastructure.