Even this may seem to be heard as unbelievable, but police departments are increasingly using Analytics to prevent crime by predicting them.

The Predictive Model makes use of algorithms, time/space analysis and social network analysis from where the police departments and other crime prevention authorities can get to know where burglary will take place or even what will be the probability that a car will be stolen.

Amazed on reading this? Go over to the link http://hub.jhu.edu/2013/10/24/predictive-policing for more interesting information on it.

 Long term care industry is facing its biggest challenge at present. It has mainly two problems, buyers are often dropping polices more than the industry predicted and on the other hand LTC companies are struggling to survive in nearly zero interest rate. Incorrect forecast of lapse rate had squeezed the profit of the companies and forced them to increase premiums which have lost its attraction to new potential buyer. Hence LTC companies are in the verge of trimming their product line and reducing discounts. In spite of bringing new polices, the companies are still facing their biggest challenge. For more details please visit http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2012/08/29/whats-killing-the-long-term-care-insurance-industry/

Social media plays an important role in searching information  and decision-making behavior of consumers.  A country like India, where 65% of population is youth, uses laptop, tab, Smartphone etc to be socially connected.  Therefore the Brands have realized the importance of social media to reach today’s young generation. For example, if we go to Nike’s Facebook page the entire focus is on fitness and athleticism rather than their products. Another way to connect with consumers is to know the importance of real time marketing which focuses on real time incident. Social media has also molded the consumers to reviewers. 

To read more- visit the following link:

http://www.mbaskool.com/business-articles/marketing/9150-consumer-behaviour-in-the-age-of-social-media.html

Now Analytics can also predict weather for as long as 40 days before.

EarthRisk Technologies has come up with an analytical model that can predict extreme weather events. This model is designed in such a way that it can identify different patterns of weather which involves intensive calculations. With the help of historically available data, it compares with the present conditions and uses predictive analytics to forecast the weather 40 days in advance.

Knowing advance weather forecasts will certainly help industries in the utility, energy and agricultural sectors as they heavily depend on weather information. With the help of this model, proper timely decisions can be taken.

To gain more insights on how Analytics are helping in predicting weather you can go to http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/10/big-data-can-predict-weather-up-to-40-days-into-the-future/ .

While solving problems on Analytics, many times it happens that the given datasets are really complex to analyze as they overlap each other. With Interactive Visual Analysis (IVA), the task becomes easier, where the datasets can display the level of interactions between them without overlapping each other.

By developing the IVA, one can gain knowledge about the datasets, which is not apparently noticeable. Not only this, IVA involves formulation and testing of hypotheses and one can also explore the correlations between the different variables.

 Sounds interesting? Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcYRrPqC5A8

Analytics Platforms are offering greater insights into real time surveillance of disease outbreaks. This will be helpful for countries like India, where population density is high. Due to the population size and density, India is prone to infectious diseases and controlling the outbreak of the diseases is becoming difficult.

With the help of predictive modelling, the Analytics Platforms can be used in determining the severity and spread of the disease. Based on these, the control measures can be applied accordingly.

For more information, please go through the link http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-31/news/46870122_1_disease-outbreaks-notification-system-syndromic-surveillance

Traffic congestion is a major issue in major cities of the world. While there are discussions going on how to optimize this problem, Analytics can be seen as a major problem solver. With the help of Analytics, traffic systems will become 'smart'. They will predict the flow of vehicles in future and depending on that information, decisions can be taken in managing congestion.

In fact, the City of Cologne, Germany has implemented Analytics to make traffic systems smart.

To see how they have done, please go through this link: http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2013/jan/22/german-city-uses-analytics-solve-traffic-jams/. 

 Ever heard of Location Analytics?

Well, that is what the next level of analytics is. 

Willing to learn the consumer behaviour deeply, the companies are investing in technologies that can track the locations of their customers, and also gain insight into what they are buying and where they are buying. Location Analytics can help the companies to fine tune their inventories, effective pricing of their products and much more. They combine all the data - ranging from customers' purchasing information to Geographical Information System data in order to study patterns and gain understanding of how, where and why customers buy. 

Go over to http://www.allanalytics.com/author.asp?section_id=1411&doc_id=257137 to have an in depth knowledge of Location Analytics and to http://www.bigdata-startups.com/BigData-startup/world-largest-coffee-shop-starbucks-grinds-lot-data/ to know how the world's largest coffee shop Starbucks is implementing Location Analytics.

Philip Kotler, an American author, consultant and professor, defines Marketing 3.0 as values driven marketing – covering the customers’ mind, heart and spirit. The new model for marketing (Marketing 3.0) treats customers not as mere consumers but as complex & multi dimensional human beings that they naturally are.  Customers, in turn, are choosing companies and products that satisfy deeper needs for participation, creativity, community, and idealism.

For more information follow : http://www.mbaskool.com/business-articles/marketing/9010-marketing-30-values-driven-marketing.html

Big Data and Analytics have become very much popular nowadays. Every industry is incorporating analytical techniques to handle big data and predict future outcomes. The recent addition in the industry list to play with data is the airlines industry, who have started to love it. From carrying on regular and vital maintenance activities & optimizing them, to capturing customer behaviour in purchasing airline tickets, Big Data is surely helping the $743 billion global airline industry to earn profits. In what ways Big Data is actually supporting the airlines industry?

Have a look at http://www.datanami.com/datanami/2014-01-03/how_big_data_helps_airline_profitability.html for more information.

With the release of its first ever Advanced Analytics Magic Content, the information research and technology advisory firm Gartner reveals Rapidminer is fast emerging as a leader in advanced analytics as against the legacy Business Intelligence Softwares like SAS. 

Big Data and Analytics was one ofthe most hot talks over the internet in 2013 and it is likely to trending upwards in 2014 also as companies are making use of predictive and advanced analytics more and more as business environment is increasingly becoming volatile. 

Seeking customer feedback is an important part of any company or organization to ensure that their products remain in line with what the customer wants. Its nothing but adhering to 'Customer Is King' principle. As business world is becoming bigger and bigger, companies are coming out with more and more new products, it is very important to hear the 'voice of the customers (VoC)' to stay ahead of the competition. Not only this, by gathering customer feedback, companies can bring in new innovations in their products.

Vertellus Specialties Inc., a specialty chemicals company in Indianapolis, IN, is reaping quality and productivity benefits, even as part of its workforce undertakes projects after getting trained in Lean and Six Sigma in 2013. The training participants had learned to make process improvements, eliminate waste, and find better ways to execute and perform respective roles in their functional areas. They have undertaken projects on variation reduction, cycle time and yield improvements, QA/QC, product specifications development, design of experiment studies, etc. The projects aim for greater consistency, higher purity, improved environmental profile, shorter lead times, lower costs, and greater throughput. 

To further this wave of continuous improvement, Vertellus aims to have 25% of its salaried workforce trained in Lean and Six Sigma by the end of 2014.

The American Society of Quality (ASQ) is having its 2014 Lean and Six Sigma conference from February 24-25 in Phoenix, AZ, USA. The theme of the conference is “Sustaining Results Through a Culture of Quality,” focusing on new and unique applications of lean and Six Sigma, lean and Six Sigma in service, change management and the human side of lean and Six Sigma." Attendees can learn how oraganizations can embrace, apply, sustain and continuously leverage Lean and Six sigma methodologies to increase efficiencies, profitability and return on investment.  

The full program and session descriptions can be found at http://asq.org/conferences/six-sigma.