BRING IT TO LIFE: CASE STUDY DEMO: IBM BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS AT WORK IN BANKING Today, companies collect and store information in many different formats and being able to understand the data and what it means has become a complex and difficult task for marketers. In this era of big data where information is characterized as high-volume, high-variety, high- velocity, and high-veracity, digital information comes from a variety of sources. These include purchase history, social media interactions, e-mail programs, mobile downloads, e-commerce purchases, and website metrics. This huge volume of data is constantly changing, often in real time, making it difficult for marketers to manage and use. In fact, it is estimated that an astronomical 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is created every day. Today, forward-thinking organizations use market research, metrics and analytics to foster a culture of measurement and continuous improvement by investing in technology, partnerships, and people. The goal is to manage big data and to discem patterns, correlations, and insights that are actionable and provide a competitive edge. Analytics refers to taking data and applying smart thinking and technology to gain actionable insights that help make better business decisions. An analytics platform helps answer questions, provides customer insights, and predicts patterns that can improve marketing performance. Analytics can help segment customers, plan and forecast, manage risk, and take corrective action. A robust analytics system processes a steady stream of real-time data to make faster and better decisions. Data is an organization's valuable asset and coupled with analytics it can show information gaps, and point to new opportunities and market insights, as well as how well a marketing program has performed and where improvements can be made to increase an organization's return on investment. Various companies provide data management and analytics services. IBM is an example of such a company that provides top-quality services that help transform data into actionable insights. IBM's data analytics platforms help companies, organize, store, and mine data so they can make better business decisions about customers, competitors, and new products. Its data analytics tools help take the guess work out of decision-making by predicting trends and outcomes while keeping information safe and secure. It helps connect the dots between varied sources of data and builds accurate customer profiles that include purchase behaviour as well as demographics, purchase history, Internet interactions, and online transactions to provide insights that help marketers determine fact-based strategies that will improve business results. The banking industry has been under a lot of pressure to provide added value to customers and in return see an increase in profit levels. By taking a more customer-centric approach, banks can harness of power of their customer data by offering a customized customer experience. This video illustrates the scope of big data available to the banking industry and the many solutions that a strong analytics platform can help provide for the client. 1. How did the bank use Peter's data to increase its business? 2. What types of companies could a bank partner with to improve the experience for its customers? 3. Think about the data collected by Shoppers Drug Mart through its Optimum Card program or another loyalty program. How could Shoppers use the data collected to provide better customer service?