Category: Big Data

Feed: Planet big data. Author: Daniel Morneau. Just a few years ago, conversations about robotic process automation (RPA) were scattered and far between. Those familiar with RPA had a limited understanding of its potential and at best had carried out only a few isolated “proof of concept” experiments. Today, the RPA market is estimated to reach $2.9 billion by 2021, and conversations are becoming more frequent.  As a Forrester advisor on the Technology Council, I’ve partnered with senior technology leaders to find solutions to their challenges, identify opportunities to strategically leverage new technology, and connect them to research experts and their peers for support. While understanding of RPA has come a long way, there is still much to learn. As RPA moves from handling automation of simple ... Read More

Feed: Hortonworks Blog – Hortonworks. Author: Michael Lin. Businesses today compete in a hyper-competitive landscape. Analyzing the past for knowledge in the present is no longer good enough – enterprises must have an eye into the future. One way is to extrapolate predictive insights out of enterprise data. Through analyzing data, retailers can design features and products appealed to a broader or concentrated audience based on trends and purchase patterns, manufacturers can predict maintenance schedule of machinery to avoid production downtime, security operations can catch a hacker before a malicious attempt even takes place, and the use cases go on ... Read More

Feed: Planet big data. Author: Faith Adams. Yesterday, SAP announced that it is acquiring Qualtrics for a hefty $8 billion in cash. For SAP, this does make some sense. SAP is often perceived as being a legacy provider that struggles to play in the consumer space, and this acquisition may help it make a larger data play. It may also enable SAP to close the loop when it comes to some of the VoC gaps in its C/4HANA CX suite that was announced earlier this year. But all of this is to be determined. For Qualtrics, the benefits are more ... Read More

Feed: Hortonworks Blog – Hortonworks. Author: Paul Codding. Building on the vision and concepts outlined previously in Arun and Saumitra’s blogs, we wanted to show the Open Hybrid Architecture Initiative (OHAI) concepts in action, and see how they could be used to solve a data-driven business problem. In this example, we’ll use look at how our Open Hybrid Architecture Initiative (OHAI) applies to an enterprise. Hortonworks Air Freight has a business problem to solve. They are a global logistics provider with hubs in San Francisco and Dallas, but they need to plan out their next hub on the east coast and ... Read More

Feed: Planet big data. Author: Allison Snow. I’ve always been attracted to the power of empathy. That being said, I’m a longtime fan of “soft” skills — skills that are helpful in relationship-building, making me a better friend and (presumably) a more tolerable colleague. Empathy clearly fits squarely there. But a more savvy marketer? A more insightful executive? A veritable customer whisperer? Hardly. Here at Forrester, analysts I admire always had a broader and, frankly, more accurate picture of empathy. Laura Ramos refers to empathy as the hallmark of the customer-obsessed B2B marketer. She partners with Jim Nail to name “practice ... Read More

Feed: Planet big data. Author: Xiaofeng Wang. I was in Shanghai last weekend to witness the largest 11.11 ever in history. Alibaba breaks another record with 2018 GMV reaching RMB213.5 billion ($30.8 billion), 27% higher than last year’s RMB168.3 billion ($25.3 billion). I’m excited to share some of the event highlights here: Stay tuned for the post-event report on Singles’ Day 2018 ... Read More

Feed: Planet big data. Author: Luis Deya. Earlier last week, UK high street apparel retailer New Look announced plans to close 85 stores, up from the 60 it announced in March. These closures are happening under the auspices of a restructuring deal (CVA first introduced as a “Creditors Voluntary Arrangement” in the 1980 Companies’ Act). Simultaneously, it unveiled a return to profitability in its first half, with revenues continuing to fall but also operating profits of £22.2 million, up significantly from a £10.4 million loss the same period a year earlier. What’s going on? What is a CVA? A company’s ... Read More

Feed: Big Data Made Simple. Author: Peter Davidson. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained momentum in every industry over the past few years. Businesses are using it to improve their productivity and performance. Many people believe that by 2030 AI will contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy. There are lots of great benefits for those businesses who are investing in AI today – mainly in the form of having a competitive advantage. This is something that most executives seemingly understand, but it’s still important to understand its practical uses for your niche. Make better business decisions with AI-based Analytics Hacker ... Read More

Feed: Feed | Tractica. Author: . At the Huawei Connect 2018 conference, apart from announcing a broad full-stack AI strategy, Huawei also talked about upcoming support for on-device training capabilities for its Ascend Lite chipset that is targeted at smartphones supporting 1 to 2 watts (W) of power and AI models of 10 megabytes (MB) and above. In fact, as part of its Ascend chipset portfolio that spans the device, network edge, and cloud, all chipsets above 1 W will support training on the device, which includes Ascend Lite, Mini, and Max. Although details were not provided, on-device training is ... Read More

Feed: Feed | Tractica. Author: . The application of reinforcement learning (RL) in an enterprise context has been limited. Back in 2017 when Tractica blogged about RL in the enterprise, it was mostly about exploring use cases and development platforms. For the most part, RL has been applied in manufacturing, energy, building automation, or automotive settings, related to optimizing and improving the performance of autonomous machines or control systems that can be simulated in a RL-infused environment. Rather than have an AI model learn from a predefined dataset and spot patterns in the data, RL enables AI to learn from ... Read More