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Big data analytics and Internet of Things voted most disruptive future tech. 

Big data analytics, Internet of Things and dynamic visualisation have topped a survey of technologies to have the most disruptive impact on organizations in three years’ time.
Conducted by Nimbus Ninety, the survey of 195 senior decision makers and project leaders in UK organisations found that 50% of respondents expect big data analytics to be leading the way, followed by Internet of Things (37%) and dynamic visualisation (35%).

Data visualization: Key to comprehension. 

While Big Data is the by-word in recent years, it is useless without analysis, understanding and comprehension. In his TED talk, data journalist David McCandeless proposes a solution to understand overwhelming data and that is through data visualization.

“Visualizing information so that we can see the patterns and connections that matter and then designing that information so it makes more sense, or it tells a story, or allows us to focus only on the information that’s important,” says McCandeless.

The author of Information is Beautiful, McCandeless says that when we transform data into graphs, pies, charts, infographics, we turn it into a landscape that we can explore with our eyes, a sort of information map which can help us find our way when we are lost in information. “Today, regulators expect organisations to have holistic enterprise fraud and misuse management programmes spanning all business units and international borders,” Tony DeSantis, a principal in the Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP data analytics practice, said in a news release. “However, many organisations are unsure where to begin and how to effectively apply analytics.”

“I would say that data is the new soil. Because for me, it feels like a fertile, creative medium. Over the years, online, we’ve laid down a huge amount of information and data, and we irrigate it with networks and connectivity,” says McCandeless. “If you look at it directly, it’s just a lot of numbers and disconnected facts. But if you start working with it and playing with it in a certain way, interesting things can appear and different patterns can be revealed.” These days, producing a nice infographic to accompany your data presentation is no longer the monopoly of graphic designers or design agency.

Analytics Managers – Today, Real-time Marketing Analytics Rules.

Marketing Analytics Managers are now able to track market trends and insights of the last minute by utilizing real-time analytics techniques.

With this tremendous growth in online shopping across the world, retailers need Big Data analytics to stay competitive. With the help of data analytics, companies are able to gain descriptive and prescriptive insights. This means that retailers can now not only find out what happened in a particular sales period, but also what they can do in the future to increase sales.

Big companies are the first ones to put the real-time analytics into practice. Paid more than $200 million for Topsy, Apple’s acquisition of this real-time social media analytics start-up is considered as a long-term strategic investment. In Adam Satariano’s article “Apple Buys Real-Time Access to Twitter’s Feed With Topsy Deal”, Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst with EMarketer Inc., believed that Apple will use the real-time social media analytics for analytics of the iAd mobile-advertising service, to make purchase recommendations from iTunes and App Store, or other marketing acts. Instead of getting market reports from the analytics group once a week, real-time analytics will easily provide more accurate insights for analytics managers to tailor messages to target audience.