Category Archives: Data Mining
How Cloud Systems Can Help Re-Invent Insurance Brands
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This article was originally published on Insurance-Edge.Net on June 11, 2020.
With global Insurtech revenue expected to top $ 10 billion by 2025, traditional insurers must start examining ways of modernising their systems to remain relevant for today’s digital-savvy customers. This is no small feat given the complexity of the technology environments of financial services companies, and the reliance of incumbents on monolithic architecture that have primarily remained on-premises despite the appeal of cloud-based solutions.
Legacy Limitations
Complicating a potential migration to more digital-centric environments is the fact that many on-site services integrate into third-party offerings. For example, the public vehicle register of a government. Any development or change to the environment, no matter how small, requires significant effort. Insurers are also limited in scaling their solutions horizontally (by adding more machines) or vertically (by adding more computational power or memory to existing machines).
Any additional load will, therefore, require significant investment in more physical and people resources to support it. To continue operating effectively, an organisation’s resources must be allocated around the clock. But this is where the challenge lies; by having to dedicate so much attention to maintenance due to the rigidity and size of existing legacy architecture, an insurer is left with precious few spare resources to focus on and drive innovation.
Typical disadvantages of such a traditionally focused environment include the following:
As engagement with customers increases across insurance touchpoints – think websites, call centres, chatbots, and the like – traditional systems cannot provide the performance improvements required to operate effectively making the systems difficult to scale.
The inability to fully embrace a multi-channel environment inadvertently places existing systems under strain and requires significant implementation efforts to review these monolithic architectures. As the systems are inflexible, there is limited possibility of allowing for a hybrid approach that connects on-premises sources with cloud-native ones.
Traditional environments have no native support for containers, a standard unit of software that packages code and its dependencies, therefore, their benefits that include speed of application delivery and reliability as well as dynamic scaling functionality, won’t be achieved.
With no native support for the practice of DevOps that advocates an agile relationship between development and IT operations, teams aren’t able to act or perform cohesively. There is no possibility of fast prototyping, resulting in a low or slow time-to-market.
Making the Move
However, by moving to a cloud-native architecture, an insurer opens itself up to a myriad of new possibilities. These born in the cloud architectures are designed to maximise the benefits of a distributed platform. This means that an insurer can focus more on its strategic business objectives and less on maintaining legacy systems.
By moving to a cloud-native architecture, an insurer opens itself up to a myriad of new possibilities. The insurer can focus more on its strategic business objectives and less on maintaining legacy systems. Click To Tweet
However, it is not recommended to “rip and replace” an entire legacy system or applications either. When it comes to cloud adoption, insurers should focus on quick wins, using quick sprints. Typically, this approach is more successful than one that seeks to drive massive change over a more extended period with a big-bang approach.
Fortunately, the capabilities of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers mean that it is possible for an insurer to incrementally move new business services to the cloud and still keep its on-premises services running. It also opens the possibility of creating hybrid architectures that enable innovation to be introduced without disrupting the current business environment.
An insurer can, therefore, reinvent itself at its own pace while still being able to deliver an improved customer experience. This is critical when aiming to create differentiation over competitor Insurtechs, who already service customers using the channels they prefer. However, an insurer must leverage its reputation and experience in the industry and then couple it to this enhanced customer experience so as to create a stronger position for itself in the market.
Key Considerations
An insurer should consider commencing a cloud journey by integrating its internal services with an API-led approach. This provides the foundation to develop applications that can be customised more effectively to deliver a faster return than more traditional ones.
New developments should be moved into the cloud by creating microservices that can easily scale with the new load it is expected to handle. For example, a Web-based Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) development tool speeds up the integration of on-premises services and third-party cloud-native services. Since SaaS providers require extensive integration with a cloud-native integration (iPaaS), the much-needed agility is improved.
Some of the advantages this provides include a simplified development approach, unlimited scalability through microservices, a higher resource utilisation thanks to IaaS and PaaS optimisation, and the availability of more dynamic reporting.
A hybrid architecture can also deliver several benefits to the insurer:
–Overall performance increase
–Agile, better-performing front ends
–Unlimited horizontal load dependant scaling
–Multi-channel API-first and API-led integration environment
–Frictionless mobile device support
-Integration with legacy databases
-Integration with a PaaS data warehouse
-Flexible deployment
–On-premises or in-cloud service integration
–Support of containers (Kubernetes or Openshift)
–DevOps support
–Fast prototyping and time-to-market
The Future is Now
By overhauling their core systems and infrastructure, insurers become better equipped for the requirements and expectations of a digital world. For instance, implementing personal voice assistant capabilities like Amazon Alexa or Google Home, and even leveraging artificial intelligence capabilities to deliver more customised customer solutions, all become not just a possibility, but a reality too.
The digitalisation journey will only accelerate as more businesses and industries wake up to the potential of the cloud. It is happening right now due to the surge of remote workers and the inability of salespeople to pop out and walk customers through their insurance portfolio changes. Even though insurers do face challenges in migrating to such a dynamic new environment, it is critical to begin as quickly as possible. The significant cost savings, customer advantages, and flexibility to scale according to business requirements make for too compelling an argument to ignore.
TIBCO NOW Connected Experience: Your Content, Your Way
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If you’ve attended any virtual conferences this year, you’ve probably wished for something more engaging, more relevant, and more compelling. One promise we can make is that the digital experience at TIBCO NOW will surpass what you think you know about online events.
The TIBCO Connected Experience will feature our channel-based approach, offering around-the-clock content that can be viewed live in your timezone or watched on-demand. Whether you are an early bird or night owl, in Sydney, Paris, or New York, TIBCO NOW will be on, streaming, and ready for you to flip through the channels and select or binge based on your interests and areas of expertise.
The TIBCO Connected Experience will feature a channel-based approach, offering around-the-clock content that can be viewed live in your timezone or watched on-demand. Click To Tweet
With five channels from which to choose, your content options are vast. Here is a look at the different channels we are offering as a part of our global agenda:
Sustainable Innovation: Join the TIBCO executive team and visionary leaders focused on sustaining the pace and impact of innovation. Data is the fuel that powers both commercially-focused and societal challenges. Learn how to build and sustain digital leadership and recognize those that have raised the bar of sustainable innovation to the highest levels. Available for all passes.
Vision & Value: Watch and participate in a series of breakout sessions focused on innovation at its core. TIBCO technology leaders present their latest releases and initiatives, and TIBCO customers from across the world share their applications of TIBCO technologies to propel their data-centric innovation success. Available for all passes.
Innovation Hub: Enjoy sessions on the latest innovations from TIBCO and our premier partners, including lively demo sessions with experts. Connect and engage with peers and have some fun. Available for all passes.
TIBCO NOW+: Go deeper and gain more insight. Explore technology topics with greater depth and immersion with TIBCO experts and industry analysts. Join “Ask Me Anything” forums with TIBCO executive leaders — a unique opportunity to go behind the scenes as never before. Only available to those with Digital Plus or NOW Educate passes.
NOW Educate: Brush up on TIBCO technologies with product knowledge training to foster new skills, learn new products, and prepare for your certification exam. Join two-part deep dive lab sessions to get instructor-led content around select TIBCO products. Only available to those with NOW Educate passes.
TIBCO NOW is a global event, so wherever in the world you are, you’ll enjoy an all-inclusive event experience filled with keynote speakers, TIBCO product announcements, customer success stories, interactive demos, sponsor- and partner-specific content, and insights from TIBCO industry leaders—all with a click of a mouse.
Your agenda and experience are curated by you. Choose the sessions that interest you the most and look for linkages to recommended sessions based on your selections and interests. Consume the content live or on-demand when your schedule best allows.
We have three packages from which to choose: NOW Digital Plus, NOW Educate, or NOW Digital Free. The package you choose will determine which channels, content, and features you will have access to throughout the event.
If you are looking for more immersive content, the NOW Digital Plus package gives you all of the NOW Digital Free content plus:
- In-depth product breakouts
- Sessions with tips & tricks for many of our most popular tools and solutions
- Insights from TIBCO experts and thought-leaders from across our organization as well as top technology analyst firms
- The ability to engage with speakers and other attendees through channel chat, question submissions, and session surveys
If you are looking to strengthen your skills and capabilities with TIBCO products, the NOW Educate package gives you all of the tools to build that expertise, including:
- All NOW Digital Plus content and features
- Product knowledge training to prepare you for certification exams
- Deep dive sessions for experienced users of TIBCO Spotfire® and TIBCO BusinessWorks™
- A voucher to become certified in a TIBCO product of your choice (a $ 300 value) + 20% off all additional certifications
- A year-long subscription to TIBCO Academy to sharpen your skills (a $ 995 value)
Check out our newly-released global agenda to see when this content is playing in your specific time zone and stay tuned in the coming months for more information about how to create your custom event agenda.
The 5 Stages of Machine Learning and the Unique Data Requirements of Each
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The importance of data management in the successful deployment of data science and machine learning (ML) cannot be overemphasized. Of course, data is that elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. It’s that gnarly beast that keeps data scientists, citizen data scientists, and data analysts up at night. But the integrity of the data that you use in processing your advanced analytics is crucial to achieving the results that every business is looking for: those pivotal insights that could potentially be game-changing.
In a new best practices report, Data Management for Advanced Analytics, 2020, research firm Transforming Data with Intelligence helps shed some light on how to get data management right for one of the hottest trends in advanced analytics today–machine learning.
According to the report, “Machine Learning and AutoML are only as good as the data fed to them. Here’s the catch: the newfound abilities of machine learning and AutoML depend heavily on getting the right data at the right time to the correct models” (TDWI, Data Management for Advanced Analytics, 2020, Philip Russom).
Machine Learning and AutoML are only as good as the data fed to them. Click To Tweet
In the report, Russom lays out the five cycles of machine learning and the different, yet equally demanding data requirements for each cycle. The cycles that Russom alludes to in machine learning are:
- Solution definition
- Development
- Deployment
- Production
- Monitoring output
To make the content more easily digestible and understandable, Russom provides a diagram to illustrate the different data requirements by stage:
As you can see, ensuring that machine learning models have the right data at the right time is a complex task. Use this report to make sure you satisfy all the requirements of each stage of machine learning – the future of your business may depend on it.
The Data Journey: From Raw Data to Insights
We live in a world of data: there’s more of it than ever before, in a ceaselessly expanding array of forms and locations. Dealing with Data is your window into the ways organizations tackle the challenges of this new world to help their companies and their customers thrive.
In a world of proliferating data, every company is becoming a data company. The route to future success is increasingly dependent on effectively gathering, managing, and analyzing your data to reveal insights that you’ll use to make smarter decisions. Doing this will require rethinking how you handle data, learn from it, and how data fits in your digital transformation.
Simplifying digital transformation
The growing amount and increasingly varied sources of data that every organization generates make digital transformation a daunting prospect. But it doesn’t need to be. At Sisense, we’re dedicated to making this complex task simple, putting power in the hands of the builders of business data and strategy, and providing insights for everyone. The launch of the Google Sheets analytics template illustrates this.
Understanding how data becomes insights
A big barrier to analytics success has been that typically only experts in the data field (data engineers, scientists, analysts and developers) understood this complex topic. As access to and use of data has now expanded to business team members and others, it’s more important than ever that everyone can appreciate what happens to data as it goes through the BI and analytics process.
Your definitive guide to data and analytics processes
This flowchart infographic shows how raw data becomes actionable insights. It will navigate you through every consideration you might need to make about what BI and analytics capabilities you need, and every step of the way that leads to potentially game-changing decisions for you and your company.
1. Generating and storing data in its raw state
Every organization generates and gathers data, both internally and from external sources. The data takes many formats and covers all areas of the organization’s business (sales, marketing, payroll, production, logistics, etc.) External data sources include partners, customers, potential leads, etc.
Traditionally all this data was stored on-premises, in servers, using databases that many of us will be familiar with, such as SAP, Microsoft Excel, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Teradata.
However, cloud computing has grown rapidly because it offers more flexible, agile, and cost-effective storage solutions. The trend has been towards using cloud-based applications and tools for different functions, such as Salesforce for sales, Marketo for marketing automation, and large-scale data storage like AWS or data lakes such as Amazon S3, Hadoop and Microsoft Azure.
An effective, modern BI and analytics platform must be capable of working with all of these means of storing and generating data.
2. Extract, Transform, and Load: Prepare data, create staging environment and transform data, ready for analytics
For data to be properly accessed and analyzed, it must be taken from raw storage databases and in some cases transformed. In all cases the data will eventually be loaded into a different place, so it can be managed, and organized, using a package such as Sisense for Cloud Data Teams. Using data pipelines and data integration between data storage tools, engineers perform ETL (Extract, transform and load). They extract the data from its sources, transform it into a uniform format that enables it all to be integrated. Then they load it into the repository they have prepared for their databases.
In the age of the Cloud, the most effective repositories are cloud-based storage solutions like Amazon RedShift, Google BigQuery, Snowflake, Amazon S3, Hadoop, Microsoft Azure. These huge, powerful repositories have the flexibility to scale storage capabilities on demand with no need for extra hardware, making them more agile and cost-effective, as well as less labor-intensive than on-premises solutions. They hold structured data from relational databases (rows and columns), semi-structured data (CSV, logs, XML, JSON), unstructured data (emails, documents, PDFs), and binary data (images, audio, video). Sisense provides instant access to your cloud data warehouses.
3. Data modeling: Create relationships between data. Connect tables
Once the data is stored, data engineers can pull from the data warehouse or data lake to create tables and objects that are organized in more easily accessible and usable ways. They create relationships between data and connect tables, modeling data in a way that sets relationships, which will later be translated into query paths for joins, when a dashboard designer initiates a query in the front end. Then, users, in this case, BI and business analysts, can examine it, create relationships between data, connect and compare different tables and develop analytics from the data.
The combination of a powerful storage repository and a powerful BI and analytics platform enables such analysts to transform live Big Data from cloud data warehouses into interactive dashboards in minutes. They use an array of tools to help achieve this. Dimension tables include information that can be sliced and diced as required for customer analysis ( date, location, name, etc.). Fact tables include transactional information, which we aggregate. The Sisense ElastiCube enables analysts to mashup any data from anywhere. The result: highly effective data modeling that maps out all the different places that a software or application stores information, and works out how these sources of data will fit together, flow into one another and interact.
After this, the process follows one of two paths:
4. Building dashboards and widgets
Now, developers pick up the baton and they create dashboards so that business users can easily visualize data and discover insights specific to their needs. They also build actionable analytics apps, thereby integrating data insights into workflows by taking data-driven actions through analytic apps. And they define exploration layers, using an enhanced gallery of relationships between widgets. A package such as Sisense for BI and Analytics Teams is designed to achieve easy to visualize analytics and form game-changing insights.
Advanced tools that help deliver insights include universal knowledge graphs and augmented analytics that use machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to automate data preparation, insight discovery, and sharing. These drive automatic recommendations arising from data analysis and predictive analytics respectively. Natural language querying puts the power of analytics in the hands of even untechnical users by enabling them to ask questions of their datasets without needing code, and to tailor visualizations to their own needs.
5. Embed analytics into customers’ products and services
Extending analytics capabilities even further, developers can create applications that they embed directly into customers’ products and services, so that they become instantly actionable. This means that at the end of the BI and analytics process, when you have extracted insights, you can immediately apply what you’ve learned in real time at the point of insight, without needing to leave your analytics platform and use alternative tools. As a result, you can create value for your clients by enabling data-driven decision-making and self-service analysis.
With a package like Sisense for Product Teams, product teams can build and scale custom actionable analytic apps and seamlessly integrate them into other applications, opening up new revenue streams and providing a powerful competitive advantage.
Find out more about how you can benefit from AI-powered self-service BI and build actionable analytic apps with all your data, simplify complexity and access insights that can drive your business forward.
Adam Murray began his career in corporate communications and PR in London and New York before moving to Tel Aviv. He’s spent the last ten years working with tech companies like Amdocs, Gilat Satellite Systems, and Allot Communications. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature. When he’s not spending time with his wife and son, he’s preoccupied with his beloved football team, Tottenham Hotspur.
Nominate Your Team for a 2020 TIBCO Partner of the Year Award
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TIBCO is dedicated to building a sustainable capability and culture of collaboration and innovation—in our organizations, our communities, and around the world. Our partners are critical to making this happen. When our partners succeed, TIBCO succeeds. When we invest in our partners’ growth and strengthen relationships that last, we create mutual sustainable success. That said, we’d like to appreciate our partners and their accomplishments through our annual TIBCO Partner of the Year Awards.
The TIBCO Partner of the Year Awards recognizes TIBCO partners that leverage TIBCO technology to develop, market, sell, and deliver industry-leading solutions while achieving the highest degree of customer success and satisfaction. The Partner of the Year Award winners exemplify dedicating time and resources to participating in the programs and utilizing the tools designed for supporting partner success, including achieving and maintaining accreditations, deal registrations, MDFs, marketing programs, and sales enablement. And, most importantly, the success of customers using TIBCO technologies.
When we invest in our partners’ growth and strengthen relationships that last, we create mutual sustainable success. Click To Tweet
The 2020 TIBCO Partner of the Year award categories aim to highlight the success of the various partners that make up our TIBCO partner community:
- Innovation Partner of the Year: Most innovative delivery of a TIBCO Connected Intelligence solution.
- Cloud Partner of the Year: A partner who delivers innovative cloud solutions, customer excellence, and business growth.
- Partner of the Year: A partner who delivers overall innovative solutions, customer excellence, and business growth.
- New Partner of the Year: A TIBCO partner of one year or less who delivers innovative solutions, rapid business growth, and customer excellence.
- ISV Partner of the Year: An ISV partner who has demonstrated excellence in innovation by jointly developing solutions with the TIBCO Connected Intelligence platform and their own technologies to deliver meaningful business results for our shared customers.
There are several benefits of winning a TIBCO Partner Award, including:
- Promotion across the industry: Your achievements will be promoted within the technology industry via an awards announcement and features during TIBCO NOW, a press release announcing your award win, and social media engagement.
- Customer visibility: TIBCO will showcase the success you’ve achieved in developing, marketing, selling, and delivering industry-leading solutions while achieving the highest degree of customer success and satisfaction. Leverage this recognition to attract and network with prospects and customers.
- Thought leadership: Build your brand as an industry luminary and receive global press coverage through featured interviews and articles on your award win.
Are you proud of the success your company has achieved as a TIBCO partner? If you have a success story to share, please submit your nomination to the applicable category before July 27, 2020. If you would like to submit a story to more than one category, please fill out a form for each category for which you would like to be considered.
Watch what the 2019 TIBCO Partner Award winners had to say about this recognition.
Modernize Your Cloud-Based Integrations with TIBCO DX
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Digital transformation continues to move at pace but recently, we’re seeing that pace increase, with many organizations at different stages in their transformation journey. Some are newly embarking on complex transformation plans, some have invested heavily but are yet to fully realize the value of their efforts, and some have successfully reinvented themselves as digital businesses. Undoubtedly, for all digital businesses the adoption of cloud plays a key role in their success, as it is the foundation that enables businesses to transform, differentiate, and gain a competitive advantage – at scale.
For all digital businesses the adoption of cloud plays a key role in their success, as it is the foundation that enables businesses to transform, differentiate, and gain a competitive advantage – at scale. Click To Tweet
Digital enables new business models and revenue streams, and moving to cloud provides the most effective platform to realize these modern business drivers:
● Digital Reinvention: Leveraging the value of data-driven intelligence to create seamlessly connected products and services, and expand into new lines of business for a greater competitive edge.
● Customer Intimacy: Placing customers at the center of strategy, and building compelling customer experiences that lead to greater acceptance, improved trust, and development of sustainable loyalty.
● Operational Excellence: Utilizing data-driven insights in decision-making to optimize operations. Better insights enable improved return on capital investment, optimized operating expenses, and developed alternative business models.
However, given the fast pace of change and the increasing number of technologies all claiming to deliver benefits, many companies are finding it difficult to identify the best approach for embracing the cloud.
Given the fast pace of change and the increasing number of technologies all claiming to deliver benefits, many companies are finding it difficult to identify the best approach for embracing the cloud. Click To Tweet
Over the past several years, TIBCO has worked with hundreds of organizations, often at the heart of their digital programs, providing the enabling platform for the world’s most challenging IT transformations and data-centric challenges. What we have discovered is the best and easiest path forward — successful digital businesses all have a portfolio of common capabilities.
Using these experiences, we’ve developed the TIBCO DX program to help customers accelerate their adoption of common digital capabilities, including the path to the cloud, ensuring clients get the most out of their transformation investments.
What is TIBCO DX?
TIBCO DX is a suite of tools, frameworks, and open-architectures wrapped in a proven delivery methodology to move your organization quickly and easily to the cloud. It’s designed to quickly demonstrate value to the business of progressing digital pilots to production at scale whole at the same time laying the foundation for a future-proof open-architecture that helps accelerate innovation, significantly reduce development cycles and enable continuous transformation.
TIBCO DX delivers real, measurable results within a defined timeline, and has been successfully applied to both prospective customers and current clients.
TIBCO DX is comprised of a four-phase path to value:
● A series of collaborative workshops, either in person or online, based around the TIBCO Digital Maturity Model to validate drivers, understand as-is, define high-level to be architectures, and identify use cases. The workshop provides each client with a business case, complete with a customized, prescriptive approach of how to migrate to the cloud, and implement a next-generation digital architecture
● A collaborative proof-of-value project to demonstrate tangible results quickly, onboard business stakeholders, and further develop the business case for continued transformation
● Business value realization, deploying use cases into production as well as the establishment of a longer-term transformation roadmap
● A continued program of innovation and transformational use cases as prescribed by the digital strategy
Want to learn more or implement this for your organization? Watch our webinar, “Modernize Your TIBCO BusinessWorks Application for Cloud” and view our datasheet to get your transition to a digital business started.
Returning to Normal and Our Economy in the Time of COVID-19
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As many countries and US states are in the beginning stages of reopening, COVID-19 cases continue to trend. After nearly three months of stringent social distancing efforts, some areas began to reopen at the end of May with the hope that the arrival of summer might mean the virus was slowing down. But while we are all eager to get the economy back on its feet and get back to our daily routines, the areas that have been the most liberal with reopenings are already experiencing a daily increase in new cases.
This poses an interesting challenge in terms of how best to mitigate the spread of disease while also restoring society and the economy. Data and analytics can help guide our community actions.
“The pandemic has highlighted the need for sound data science, visual analytics and data management methods, and the infusion of these skills and literacy into broader groups of users—in companies and the population at large,” says Michael O’Connell, TIBCO Chief Analytics Officer.
Data science and analytics have become a focal point for business leaders to find out what’s going on right now, how to best tune the business in this new order of demand and supply, and how to forecast what lies ahead.
To this end, TIBCO has applied data science, visual analytics, and data management methods to a wide range of COVID-19 data, and this is available to the public via our COVID-19 Visual Analysis Hub. The Spotfire Live Report Application, uses data from 15 public sources that we ingest and refresh regularly. Some key components of the Live Report analysis are:
- Modeling the virus’ Reproduction number (Re/Rt). This provides insights into the virus spread, highlighting problem areas ahead of time.
- SuperSmoother analysis of the reported cases and fatalities. This removes inconsistencies and errors and provides summaries and projections of case velocities at local and regional levels.
- Analysis of testing and mobility data in context of business reopenings.
- Assessing the effects of local government interventions, with a collated dataset from local public health department sources, categorized to match prominent scientific papers and work from leading epidemiology institutions. These data are used to annotate case, fatality and hospitalization data, and the SuperSmoother estimates, to show the impact of local intervention efforts.
Our findings so far have provided clear evidence that social distancing interventions dramatically lowered the spread of local epidemics, and that the uptick in cases that have occurred over the past month is related to the relaxation of these efforts.
TIBCO’s COVID-19 Visual Analytics Hub has found that social distancing interventions dramatically lowered the spread of epidemics, and the uptick in cases over the past month is related to the relaxation of these efforts. Click To Tweet
Helping Industries Better Understand COVID-19 Trends
The TIBCO Data Science team is collaborating with industry partners on specialized applications in the areas of healthcare, pharmaceutical, consumer goods, retail, and insurance and below, we examine some of these use cases.
Syntellis is using TIBCO Spotfire with their hospital customers to track local hospital utilization rates, including beds, ICU beds, ventilators and equipment. Hospitals are updating these analyses, often in real-time, to ensure there are enough PPE for staff, enough beds for patients, and even to predict the number of beds expected to be available in the future. By looking at the trends in cases, along with the statistics on case severity and average stay, hospitals can anticipate bed availability beforehand.
PerkinElmer is using Spotfire to study the bioinformatics and cheminformatics around the SARS-CoV-2 virus and treatments in development. They have studied 60,000 SAS-CoV-2 genome sequences and this community has tracked mutations that correlate with COVID-19 severity. Several studies are starting to elucidate the interplay between human genetics and COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 is evolving rapidly—the original strain is almost gone and new strains are showing some different behaviors. Some recent results suggest that the O blood type may afford some protection. The Washington University (St. Louis) is also using Spotfire to study how human (host) genetic variation affects the virus’ ability to enter the cell and trigger immune response.
The consumer goods and retail industries are also relying on data science for insights into reopening. Forecasting and nearcasting demand and reconfiguration of supply chain and distribution is helping optimize patterns such as BOPIS (buy online, pickup in store). Data Science is also crucial in predicting revenues from eCommerce and stores as they reopen. Instore sales have been minimal, and traditional same store revenue forecasts have not been possible. It’s a new world and new methods of revenue generation and analysis are needed.
Using Data Science to Make Sure You Have a Safe Place to Work
But what does this mean for ‘reopening’? As we move forward, we will likely be continuing to focus on reducing transmission rates, including better hygiene practices—such as mask-wearing and hand washing—and increased testing rates, both for the virus as well as for antibodies.
We may be looking at a to-and-fro in virus cases; from local jurisdiction orders to reopen, along with people’s changing behavior and perceptions; followed by cycles of increased social distancing as fear of infection returns. To help ease the return to work, companies and government officials are turning to data science to help mitigate risks.
Technologies are emerging to help businesses reopen safely, such as the new TIBCO GathersmartTM offering. TIBCO GathersmartTM enables employers and schools to create surveys for employees and students that can be used to implement work from home or office policies, and to monitor and manage employees through a centralized dashboard. Leadership teams can visualize hotspots and evolve policy and response for personnel.
TIBCO GathersmartTM enables employers and schools to create surveys for employees and students that can be used to implement work from home or office policies, and to monitor and manage employees through a centralized dashboard. Click To Tweet
For further insights into data science methods for pandemic analytics and reopening strategies from TIBCO’s Chief Analytics Officer Michael O’Connell and the TIBCO Data Science team, visit the COVID-19 Visual Analysis Hub and TIBCO Community blog. O’Connell and the team are hosting regular webinars where they discuss their most recent findings and explain the meaning behind the data science. To learn how we are addressing COVID-19 challenges from a data science perspective, watch the on-demand webinar today.
We hope you continue to stay safe and healthy as we move toward recovery.
How to Build Resilient Supply Chains with a Digital Nervous System
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Supply chains, which increasingly rely on global connections, have had a number of disruptions over the past 12 months, requiring greater resiliency and adaptability.
Buying intentions and stock inventory can change overnight, and many supply chain systems may not be ready for rapid shifts in purchasing patterns. And even the most intelligent companies with the most sophisticated analytics may not be able to keep up without real-time data.
This ever-changing market landscape has created a need for greater collaboration and increased information flow along the entire supply chain. Lack of cross-function support, limited workforce engagement, and lack of robust technology make it hard for organizations to achieve their supply chain goals.
Lack of cross-function support, limited workforce engagement, and lack of robust technology make it hard for organizations to achieve their supply chain goals. Click To Tweet
To solve these challenges, your organization needs a smart, real-time, data-driven supply chain management solution that delivers: real-time visibility, continuous data, streaming artificial intelligence, early warnings, risk predictions, advanced analytics, and collaboration. All the elements needed so your company, suppliers, and your entire supply chain can adapt quickly to today’s changing conditions.
That said, think of this intelligent supply chain like a “digital nervous system” that combines leading technologies including: visual analytics, data science, streaming apps, data virtualization, metadata, and integration. All of these tools work together to create a seamless, intelligent supply chain, making full use of all the data generated.
One example of an intelligent supply chain nervous system made possible by TIBCO is Bayer Crop Sciences. Its approach implemented enterprise-scale data integration, data virtualization, 14,000 visual analytics users, steaming image analytics, and AI and edge computing to drive precision planting and farming.
This enabled the company to:
- Share collaborative analytics for added agility and flexibility in precision agriculture use cases
- Blend image data from drones with traditional sources (soil, irrigation, and fertilization) without moving or altering source data
- Synchronize and replicate high-scale data integrations between crop profiles and its CRM
Join us for this webinar with RTInsights to learn how you can implement TIBCO Connected Intelligence solutions to build a resilient supply chain with a digital nervous system. Also, read the paper on TIBCO’s Supply Chain Nervous System for a more in-depth look.
Microsoft and TIBCO Team Up to Bring Machine Learning and AI to IoT and the Edge
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In our continuing commitment to accelerate digital business transformation through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), TIBCO unveiled the capabilities of TIBCO Spotfire® and TIBCO® Data Science to support Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services at a recent Build conference. Thanks to this combo of TIBCO and Microsoft technologies, sensor data, and log data can now be analyzed on edge devices with little to no internet connectivity. This means less lag time for analytics and hence, faster response times for businesses based on that intelligence, particularly in places with unreliable internet connections.
The need for intelligence at the edge without internet connectivity is growing fast. In fact, in a report by Gartner, they predict that “By 2022, more than 50% of enterprise-generated data will be created and processed outside the data center or cloud.” As more devices become intelligent, there will be a greater need for processing the data they collect outside of core systems and closer to the edge.
Think of factory floors, shipping containers at sea, and any other location where the internet is spotty. Now, in places with little to no internet connectivity, developers can bring the power of TIBCO visual analytics and data science solutions to detect and prevent anomalies. Anomalies help improve their organization’s operational efficiency and lower equipment costs.
“Increasingly, customers performing predictive maintenance must look for ways to leverage AI closer to where their data is generated for timely analytics and responses,” said Matt Quinn, Chief Operating Officer, TIBCO. So, for those who have focused on bringing AI to their core systems, it’s now time to think about how you can extend intelligence to your Internet of Things (IoT) and edge devices that might lack full-time internet connectivity.
For those who have focused on bringing AI to their core systems, it’s now time to think about how you can extend intelligence to your Internet of Things (IoT) and edge devices that might lack full-time internet connectivity. Click To Tweet
Some excellent use cases highlighting the power of intelligence at the edge where internet connectivity is questionable or shaky have been popping up in recent years including the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics who are proactively predicting infection rates using advanced analytics on data collected on medical devices. Their efforts saw a drop of 74 percent in onsite surgical infections as a result of making predictive decisions directly in operating rooms. Anadarko, an oil and gas exploration and production company that has been working with TIBCO for several years, increased the speed of their drilling projects by 10 times even though many of their drill sites are in the middle of the ocean or in underdeveloped countries where internet connectivity is spotty at best.
With so much data being generated at the edge, it’s not always practical to bring that data back to a central location for processing. You need the capabilities of AI and ML to bring better and faster decisioning to the edge without the limitations of, slow or no internet connectivity. For more information on how the TIBCO plus Microsoft use case might be able to help your company realize machine learning at the edge, please visit Microsoft Channel 9 for the demo given at the Build Conference, read the TechTarget News article or TIBCO press release for more details.
People-First Leadership: Shock, Transition, Transformation
In Navigating Change in Crisis, we explore how individuals and companies are adapting to a “new normal” in order to keep essential services functioning. We provide actionable advice around how organizations, and ultimately the builders of data and analytic apps, are adapting to meet these changes. These insights aim to help you and your team navigate these unprecedented times.
There’s more on the line today than ever before — for people, businesses, and their leaders. A steady hand navigating uncharted waters is a must. Leaders who prioritize people first can mean the difference between success and failure.
In the COVID era, human connections have become even more vital. People-first leadership means bringing positivity to a world where we are all experiencing countless challenges. This leadership style can lead to increased productivity, performance, employee retention, and an overall positive work culture.
In our recent Sisense webinar, People-First Leadership During a Crisis: Shock, Transition and Transformation, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, joined Amir Orad, Chief Executive Officer at Sisense, and Nurit Shiber, Chief People Officer at Sisense, to discuss the keys to building a robust people-first leadership strategy when companies are faced with new and unexpected challenges.
Managing during crisis: Focusing on the human
People-first leadership means acknowledging that we are all human and experiencing a generation-defining trauma right now, regardless of position. Being honest and transparent about what’s happening throughout the business is essential.
Successful leaders understand that during a crisis it’s crucial to be:
- Human
- Optimistic yet Realistic
- Vulnerable
- Empathetic
- Decisive
“As leaders, we can share that we are going through these challenges as well. For example, everyone has experienced a bad wifi connection and it’s easy to feel embarrassed. But it’s important to remember that it’s ok because it’s showing a vulnerability that we all have and are experiencing.”
Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight
Become the “Chief Empathy Officer”
As a people-first leader, your job isn’t to be the “Chief Cheerleader” but to understand that everyone has unique situations and perspectives. Being empathetic about where your people are at right now is key to your success as a leader. You have to be conscious of how you deliver information and how people perceive it. Emphasizing the need for your workers to engage in self-care and leading by example is necessary for the future of the business.
“We owe it to our customers and employees to give our best, so we need to be successful at balancing extreme work/not extreme work. For our sanity, we implemented ‘Self-Care’ days across the company to balance the extreme work efforts that Sisensers naturally obtain, so we don’t burn ourselves out.”
Amir Orad, CEO at Sisense
Balance your decisions and consider key trade-offs
With people’s wellbeings and livelihoods at stake, it’s important to understand the “trade-off” of being empathetic, while still setting your company up for business success with extra preparation. Having open discussions with your management team on how to push their teams to perform at their highest potential, while being cognizant of the personal issues that everyone might be dealing with is important.
“The trade-offs are always challenging because what’s at stake is people’s livelihoods, long-term and short-term success, and balancing people’s well being and health without being overburned with what’s going on.”
Amir Orad, Chief Executive Officer at Sisense
Maximizing performance during crisis
Understanding that there are things you can and can’t control is crucial in times of crisis. While you can control the quality of presentations, the amount of outreach, and the research and preparation going into demos, you can’t control your customers’ and prospects’ new decision processes post-COVID-19.
“We’re doing more account reviews, more celebration of the pipeline, and more all-around around preparation to set ourselves up for success post-COVID-19.”
Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight
Shifting focus: Finding new ways to give back
When approaching new initiatives in the COVID-era, shifting energy to focus on ways you can help your customers survive, and new ways to connect with them in this new reality is vital. With more companies using analytics to pivot during the pandemic, Sisense has taken the initiative to offer a COVID-19 relief package for customers.
“During the COVID-era, we have shifted more energy into thinking about the community and helping institutions fight COVID with free products and offerings.”
Amir Orad, Chief Executive Officer at Sisense
Focusing on the future and innovation, while adapting to the present, starts with people-first leadership. To strive and thrive in times of crisis you need to balance your company’s need for financial durability with a focus on the health and well being of your employees and maintaining customer-obsession.
For more tips on people-first leadership during crisis, watch the full on-demand webinar.
Nurit Shiber leads our organizational strategy, operations and developing our people and culture. Previously, Nurit was the VP of Human Resources at NICE Actimize where she helped double the employee base worldwide while building strong leadership and organizational foundations. Nurit is best known for cultivating strong company culture, building human-centric people functions and building teams to help companies scale.