A study has identified five key trends that will impact business intelligence (BI) this year. Cloud based technologies will ensure that BI will be a less expensive proposition this year. The earlier practice of BI being divorced from its reporting tools will vanish as they will get integrated into unitary solutions. BI will be able to leverage the strength and growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things (IoT). BI will continue its rise in analysis as even more minute, granular bits of analytics will not be extracted from existing data. It is a myth that finance is the main department using BI tools, instead the others have been using and will continue to make full usage of them.

Source:http://m.bizcommunity.com/Article.aspx?l=196&c=664&i=157439

A good data scientist understands that poring over heaps of data in front of a computer screening, using algorithms and conducting the analysis is the most important part of his/her job. However, a great data scientist in addition to what a good one does, also goes out in the open, talks to people to get a real practical feel and does ground work. That is why while the former trust marketing research using surveys completely, the latter are aware that non-sampling errors play a big part. That is what led to the wrongful predictions made by the Princeton Election Commission and the New York Times in the recent US Presidential elections. It is important to note how the data was actually collected. Analysis of the said data may not be enough, instead genuine background research is necessary to get the full context of the situation. Also all theories learnt and observed must actually be applied in day-to-day circumstances.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-best-data-scientists-get-out-and-talk-to-people

The field of customer experience will be at the forefront in the coming year. Five trends in particular will shape the same in 2017. The Internet of Things (IoT) has already started making headway into everyday usage but that will rise further in the upcoming year through devices such as Fitbit and experiences such as the one Absolut has curated for pleasurable drinking. However, greater penetration of IoT also implies improved security measures as evidenced by the outages earlier this year on Twitter, Spotify and several other networks. Machine Learning is already improving customer experiences. Data is being tracked to deliver personalized experiences depending on the business intelligence captured. A very good example of this is football team Real Madrid’s use of a Microsoft application to analyze worldwide fans and then divide them into groups in terms of following. Data will define customer experiences especially in CRM as already done by Sephora. The smart diagnostics deliverables will improve in 2017 with major consumer durables player LG entering into this in a big way. This combines IoT with the analytics to provide refined customer experiences. The mobile phone will become ubiquitous to business as well as personal decision making in the year. That will lead to more in-store applications to guide the customer on product qualities.

Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2016/12/05/five-trends-shaping-the-future-of-customer-experience-in-2017/#6a6295577ad1

Platform based businesses such as Uber, Facebook, Google, Airbnb and Amazon continue to do great business, while disrupting other models. A misconception is that these companies are doing well due to their matchmaking capabilities. They do connect the best suited sellers with the ideal fit customers, but there is more to their business model. Beyond matchmaking, these platforms provide enormous amount of business intelligence about what the market really needs. They give genuine insights after analyzing the vast data which they get during their business processes. These insights also help companies to streamline their production and supply while often changing their product altogether due to market feedback. The head of Alibaba has explicitly stated that their business is there for the purpose of helping as many people as possible.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/08/the-best-platforms-are-more-than-matchmakers