The benefits of using data smarter

Big things are happening in the fast-emerging, innovative world of 'Big Data' and New Zealand SMEs – particularly those servicing the public transport, housing, and health sectors, along with the general ICT world – are being invited to take a global leadership position and access it in manageable chunks via the recently launched Telecom specialist facilitator, Qrious.

Along with this emerging Big Data phenomenon is the global emergence of a new kind of sought-after professional, the ‘data scientist’. 

Qrious is said to be built on “a powerful combination of information, insight and action”. It is committed to “delivering greater access to a smart data world, by providing a better way for New Zealand organisations to tap into the world of insights, thereby creating value from data, analytics and applications”.

“We are living in a new digital age,” says GM Cyrus Facciano, “where the smart use of data is an exploding global phenomenon. It’s rapidly changing the way people live and do business around the world. Ours is a bold move to help lead the development of greater economic and social value, locally.

“We believe there is a massive opportunity for NZ Inc. to generate significant economic and social benefit from smarter use of data. Global comparisons suggest this could generate billions of dollars for New Zealand.  

“We want to help local businesses thrive and innovate by tackling big challenging issues – like how to deliver better efficiencies and results. We want to help do that by improving the way their products and services meet their customer wants and needs. 

“For example, we are curious about ways to help prevent the increase of chronic illness and improve the healthcare services available to the public. By connecting available data sets across the sector and correlating this with population demographics, we can help direct investment to the most in-demand types of care. 

“Greater value and benefits can be derived from the combination of information, the insights that can be gleaned from that information, and the application of those insights into valuable action. 

“The challenge facing us as a small country is many organisations and businesses don’t have the expertise or technical resources to analyse information and gain these insights, and where they do, there are significant obstacles to generating tangible value. 

Using a powerful, local cloud platform and a team of data experts, Qrious aims to help them overcome this challenge. It recently stole the show at the Sydney announcement by database legend, Scott Yarra, that his company, Pivotal, was to begin making its Big Data Suite – “a unified set of capabilities proven over three decades of development, market-leading data management and analytical intelligence” – available on a flexible, annual, single subscription (software, support and maintenance). This would provide the flexibility and freedom which had, until now, inhibited start-ups and SMEs because of upfront and licensing costs.

Facciano told them how Qrious, a Pivotal client, had recognised upfront data science required a combination of skills which joined statistical analysis, coding and business acumen to solve business and societal problems. 

“Data Science is a new role in organizations that has emerged as businesses need to make decisions faster, handle larger and more diverse sets of data and focus on predictive analytics rather than historical analytics.

“Briefly, Data Scientists help drive business in new directions by rapidly prototyping and experimenting over an organisation’s entire data set; focus on answering questions about the future (predictive analytics and simulation rather than analysing the past); use the tools and technologies associated with large data sets (Hadoop, MPP Databases, etc); extract, present and communicate insights gained from data to senior team members; and collaborate closely with product development.

“So as to help build up the data science skill base within New Zealand which will be necessary to deliver these benefits, we are also establishing a Data Science Academy, where students will be trained, tutored and tested on their knowledge of these new techniques. 

“The best people will be offered internships and positions in this emerging and exciting industry.”

 

“The Qrious Data Science Academy is focused on providing ‘a unique opportunity for aspiring data scientists to work on some of the industry’s most challenging problems and collaborate with thought leaders’. People with these skills are quickly becoming some of the most sought-after individuals in the job market, but acquiring the skills and experience is difficult. 

“We will provide access to the most interesting real-world problems as a way to build skills and credibility towards your data science career,” Facciano says.

The company believes the Academy will provide “the right support and resources to help participants achieve their career goals through a collaborative, agile and progressive environment”. 

Qrious is already an established Pivotal client. Yarra described the launch of a “use it as you need it” pricing model, as a vital step enabling customers to flexibly move their investment from one technology to another within the suite, at any time. This meant data simply being stored was not charged for. 

“This merging of traditional and next-generation data infrastructure technologies, as a ‘Business Data Lake’ – the new priority for the industry into the future – will be increasingly important as enterprises seek to consolidate more and more information.”

Pivotal, committed to open source and open standards, recently introduced Pivotal One, the world's first comprehensive, multi-cloud, enterprise platform-as-a-service (PaaS). It is also a leading provider of application and data infrastructure software, agile development services and data science consulting. 

“Data sits at the centre of any business, the lens through which modern disruptors unearth answers to their most important business questions and the basis for the creation of a new class of applications which better-serve the needs of customers. 

“With the Pivotal Big Data Suite, data-driven companies now have the ability to store everything, analyse anything, and build exactly what they want and need, without fear or penalty when making data technology investment decisions,” Yarra says. 

“With the Pivotal Big Data Suite, we are taking the lead for the industry by removing the technical barriers to data off the plates of our customers. Now the choice isn’t about Hadoop or a SQL database, in-memory or real-time processing, but efficiency and value.

“The next generation of data computing gives them the speed, scale and efficiency they need to stay relevant in the market; be able to take advantage of modern database technologies and use them collectively without fear of penalty or waste of investment.” 

The last word is with Facciano: “We think people will be amazed at the innovation, efficiencies and insights that can be created from the better understanding of available information. Qrious will be the market leader in extracting these insights and helping our organisation and business customers comprehend and influence the forces that shape modern society.”