Top 9 Big Data and business intelligence articles, 4-11 May

Data-driven companies share characteristics that enable them to achieve more with their data than others in their industries. We reveal what separates the masters from the wannabes. Big data is changing the way companies and industries operate. Although virtually all businesses acknowledge the trend, not all of them are equally prepared to meet the challenge.

A few weeks ago we launched a survey. We wanted to take the Pulse of BI in 2015 to find out for ourselves what your attitudes are towards three key technology trends that we currently see in our industry. In particular we were keen to understand how organizations are using or planning to use Cloud, Big Data and mobile business intelligence.

Big data isn't just for giant public companies. Even small startups can use data to help their businesses grow.

Data, data everywhere. It's not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data your business generates today. But what really tips you over the edge is that all these different types of crucial business data are stored in different systems in different formats, making it near-impossible to get a single view of your business.

As Cuba prepares for an influx of American tourists and businesses, the government turned to a Spanish analytics firm to help it crunch big data to improve hotels and infrastructure. (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) While Cuba has never stopped receiving a regular influx of tourists from Canada, Latin America, and Europe, the potential growth the US market offers is enormous.

Big data analytics used to be reserved for large enterprises with deep enough pockets to fund both the IT infrastructure and the data scientists necessary to derive insight from massive data collections. Sure, smaller companies might collect or gain access to big data, but getting actionable information from it was an enormous challenge.

Without Big Insight, Big Data Is Useless By Jef Cozza / Sci-Tech Today Big data is often heralded as a transformative force that will usher in a new era of data-driven decision making for executives and business managers.

Need a ride? A room? Open an app and make it happen - in seconds. I'm excited about the possibilities of the collaborative economy and about the role data plays in enabling this new model for doing business. Last week, at the CDO Summit In New York, Jeremiah Owyang, the Crowd [...]

I am a data forecaster with the Good Judgment Project: a series of data-forecasting tournaments where participants predict a vast range of political, economic, and military outcomes by probability. This crosses a global array of subjects, ranging from the end-of-day closing price of precious metals and monetary exchange rates to the determination of trial outcomes and presidential elections.