Meet the new Chief Data Officer

The cover story of the September/October 2011 issue ofAnalytics Magazine argues that given the explosion of data and data-driven decision-making across the corporate world, it's time to create a seat in the C-suite for the "Chief Data Officer." Another article, "Assessing the Analysts," asks the question: How does the client know if the work is done right? Other highlights include articles about text analytics, sports analytics, healthcare analytics and India as an emerging global analytics powerhouse.

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IBM and Streetline address city parking problems through analytics

IBM and Streetline, Inc. announced a collaboration to help cities reduce congestion, better manage parking availability and resources and put information at people's fingertips to find parking faster. Combining information management and advanced analytics from IBM with data gathered from parking sensors and applications from Streetline will allow cities to make smarter and more timely decisions related to parking and their transportation systems. Officials will be able to use the "Smarter Parking" solution to better understand parking patterns so they can improve citizen services, optimize revenue and more effectively allocate city resources.

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Industrialized low-cost IT services transform IT services market

Chief information officers (CIOs) should consider adopting industrialized, low-cost IT services (ILCS) to reduce the cost of "running the business," while controlling the risk, integration and customization issues, to increase the business value of IT and enhance its perception by the business, according to Gartner, Inc. CIOs said that delivering differentiation and additional business value, while reducing the cost of IT will be their business and IT priorities, according to the Gartner Executive Program (EXP) 2011 CIO agenda survey.

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Pittsburgh Pirates tap analytics to boost marketing

As "Moneyball" has become a valued statistical approach to selecting Major League baseball talent, teams such as the Pittsburgh Pirates are also embracing analytics to improve operations and marketing and build stronger relationships with fans. Using SAS Visual Data Discovery, the Pirates surface a treasure trove of fan insights. The point-and-click interface gives quick entry to advanced analytics to help them better understand how their fans are changing, where fans are coming from and how promotions affect ticket sales.

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Analytics helps recovering travel industry

As the travel industry continues to recover from the recession, it's imperative that each segment of the ecosystem better understand customer behavior, increase bookings and build revenue to their sites, which analytics makes possible, according to the latest report published by Heavy Reading IP Services Insider. The report, "Travel Providers Get On Board With Insight From Analytics," examines how companies in the travel ecosystem are using analytics today, as well as expected trends over the next 24 months.

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FICO earns patents for credit scoring, fraud detection

FICO was recently awarded eight patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for inventions underlying FICO offerings in credit scoring, fraud detection and predictive analytics. "This latest round of patents is a … natural outgrowth of FICO's culture of innovation and discovery," says Dr. Andrew Jennings, chief analytics officer at FICO. "Our advances in predicting customer behavior are essential for businesses that need to make smarter decisions in a changing economy with stricter regulations and higher customer expectations for speed, service and relevance."

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'Watson,' WellPoint team up to improve patient care

WellPoint, Inc. and IBM announced an agreement to create the first commercial applications of the IBM Watson technology. Under the agreement, WellPoint will develop and launch Watson-based solutions to help improve patient care through the delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based health care for millions of Americans. Watson's ability to analyze the meaning and context of human language and quickly process vast amounts of information to suggest options targeted to a patient's circumstances can assist decision-makers, such as physicians and nurses, in identifying the most likely diagnosis and treatment options for their patients.

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