How Big Data Is Changing the Financial Industry

How Big Data is changing the Financial Industry
Big Data is the talk of the town these days; not only has it ushered in the next generation of technology, but it has also modified the way businesses and financial institutions are performing their day to day activities.

Financial institutions are always on the lookout to enhance their day to day operations while keeping their competitiveness intact. Let’s have a quick look at analyzing the top 5 financial trends which are quickly taking over the financial industry and paving the path for modernizations.

Strengthening Financial Models: Data is prevalent in every industry. Financial institutions such as banks, lending institutions, trading firms, etc., produce tons of data on a regular basis. To manage such voluminous data, there is an imminent need to bring into operation a data handling language which is equipped to handle, manipulate and analyze massive volumes of information – this is where the role of Big Data comes into the picture. Financial institutions often work on different business and financial models, especially with respect to approving loans, trading stocks, etc. To make efficient working models past data trends need to be taken into consideration. The better the data relativity, the stronger the model and lesser would the risks involved. All such strategies can be derived from the use of Big Data, which in turn becomes an effective method to drive data-driven models through different financial services.

Enhanced Data Processing and Storage: Technology will never stop growing. Since the aforementioned has become an inseparable part of every organization’s life cycle, the data generated by daily operations gives way to the need of the hour storage and data processing. If one talks about the use of Big Data, the name is a clear giveaway in itself; it encompasses the use of the language, which means storing data in the Cloud or on other shared servers becomes a cinch. Thus distribution and processing come as a byproduct of storage capabilities. Cloud management, data storage, and data processing have become the words to reckon with, as more and more organizations are considering opportunities within the technical world.

Machine Learning Generates Better Returns: Financial Institutions deal with customer data on a day to day basis. Not only is such information critical, but very valuable, since it gives insights into the daily functioning of the bank. Considering the sensitivity of the data, there is a pressing need to evaluate the stored data, and protect it from fraudulent activities, while ensuring the risk is reduced drastically. Machine Learning has become an integral part of modern fraud prevention systems, which help to enhance risk management and prevent fraudsters from entering into protected domains.

Blockchain Technology: When customer data is at the fore, and financial transactions are at risk, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) practices become a topic of deliberation. Many people are beginning to give considerable importance to Blockchain technology within the financial industry forum. Blockchain possesses the ability to decentralize databases, and further link separate transaction information through code. This way, it can secure the transactions and offer an extra layer of security to the organizations dealing with sensitive data.

Customer Segmentation: Banks are always under pressure to convert their business models from business-centric to customer-centric models; this means that there is a lot of pressure to understand customer needs and place them before business needs to maximize the efficacy of banking. To facilitate the shift banks need to perform customer segmentation to be able to provide better financial solutions to their customers. Big Data helps perform such tasks with simplicity, thereby enhancing groups and data analysis.

There is no denying the fact that Big Data has increasingly taken over various industries in a short matter of time. The higher the opportunities being exploited, the better the results being displayed by banks and other financial institutions. The idea is to expand efficiency, provide better solutions, and become more customers centric. All the while decreasing the tangent of fraud and risks within the financial domain.

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Why is Big Data Analytics Technology so Important

Top 7 Technologies to Unleash the Full Potential of Big Data

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When I was wondering “how big is ‘Big Data’?”, I stumbled across an excellent description saying, “A Big Data can be as big as a million of exabytes (1,024 petabytes) or a bazillion of petabytes (1,024 terabytes) containing billions and trillions of records from people worldwide”. And that’s amazing!

Big data is massive and exploding!! Hundreds of companies worldwide are springing up with new projects to extort the full potential of Big Data – that of rapid extraction, loading, transformation, search, analysis and share massive data sets.

Here we go top 7 open source technologies to bring out the best of Big Data that you should start adopting today.

Apache Hive 2.1: If you want your applications to run 100 times faster, Apache is your solution. Apache Hive is Hadoop’s SQL solution. The latest release features performance enhancement keeping Hive as the only solution for SQL on petabytes of data over clusters of thousands of nodes.

Hadoop: One of the most popular MapReduce platforms, Hadoop is a robust enterprise-ready solution to run Big Data servers and applications. For this, you need YARN and HDFS for your primary data store.

Spark: Yet another no—brainer, Spark offers easy-to-use technologies for all Big Data Languages. It is a vast ecosystem that is growing rapidly providing easy batching/micro-batching/SQL support.

Pheonix: An SQL skin on Apache HBase, Pheonix is ideal to support Big Data use cases. It replaces regular HBase client APIs with standard JDBC APIs to insert data, create the table and send queries to HBase Data. It reduces the amount of code, allows transparent performance optimisation to the user, integrates and leverages the power of several other tools.

Zeppelin: It calls itself a web-based notebook empowering interactive data analytics. You can just plug in data/language processing back end into Zeppelin that supports interpreters like Python, Apache Spark, JDBC, Shell and Markdown.

Kafka: Kafka is a fast, durable, scalable and fault-tolerant subscribe and public system. It often replaces message brokers like AMOP and JMS as it features higher throughput, replication and reliability. It is combined with Apache HBase, Apache Storm and Apache Spark for streaming of data and real-time analysis.

NiFi: NiFi maximises the value of data-in-motion. It is designed and built to automate the data flow between systems and create secure data ingestion. Two key roles of NiFi are:
• Accelerate Data Collection and enhances movement for ROI on Big Data
• Collect, secure and transport data from IoT.

Idexcel Big Data Services is focused on dealing effectively with technologies & tools that enable efficient management of Big Data Volume, Diversity and Velocity. With massive and active client engagement spanning several verticals, we help businesses in building data analytics decision within the organisation.

That said, would you like to be another name enlisted on our happy customer directory?

Budget Strategies for Maximizing Big Data – Idexcel Big Data Roundup

1. Budget Strategies for Maximizing Big Data

Big data doesn’t necessarily come with a big pricetag. Here, an expert offers his tips for using big data on a small budget.

Got an operational problem?

Big Data will solve it! Marketing ills? Ask Big Data! Those two words have become a catchall — but data-crunching services tend to chase after enterprise-level businesses, making them out of reach for most small businesses. (Google Analytics Premium, for example, starts at $150,000 a year.) Don’t worry: Martineau says that with a strategic approach to Big Data, anyone can afford it. Continue reading…

2. Hadoop Overview: A Big Data Toolkit

Big Data isn’t new. Forbes traces the origins back to the “information explosion” concept first identified in 1941. The challenge has been to develop practical methods for dealing with the 3Vs: Volume, Variety, and Velocity. Without tools to support and simplify the manipulation and analysis of large data sets, the ability to use that data to generate knowledge was limited. The current interest and growth in Big Data, Data Science, and Analytics is largely because the tools for working with Big Data have finally arrived. Hadoop is an important piece of any enterprise’s Big Data plan. Continue reading…

3. Mendix Low-Code Mobile Dev Platform Connects IoT, Big Data and Machine Learning

Mendix today announced a new version of its low-code mobile development platform, designed to help developers build “Smart Apps” with connectors to accommodate emerging trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and machine learning (ML). Continue reading…

4. Marketing Technology Vendors Offer Big Success with Big Data

As you’re probably already aware, the marketing technology vendor landscape is amazingly vast. Scott Brinker, editor of chiefmartec.com, shares that in 2016 there are at least 3,874 vendors hawking their wares in the marketing technology space. And every single one of them uses data.
To that end, following are four examples of marketing technology vendors using big data effectively: Continue reading…

5. Role of Risk Audits: How the Cloud & Big Data have Changed Them

The role of auditors has been changing rapidly over the past decade. Big data is allowing them to make higher quality decisions. However, their job is also becoming more complicated, so future financial auditors will need a strong background in IT.

Big data, marketing and decision-making – what is it all about?

Last week I got asked if I know about big data and how you use it in digital marketing. Yes, of course, I do. I’ve been using big data for years when analysing numbers from websites and social media.

I’ve also been fortunate to speak at many conferences where some of the speakers are fully trained ‘big data ninjas’, and I’m lucky to know some of them personally.

Big data is complex information, and it feels as overwhelming as a huge waterfall. It’s only if you present big data in a meaningful way it helps you to make better decisions. Continue reading

Top 10 Big Data Articles You Must Read Today

1. Big Data: Now A Top Management Issue For 2016

A new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows how big data is moving from its infancy to a “data adolescence,” in which companies are increasingly meeting the challenges of a data-driven world.

The report, called “Big Data Evolution,” details the ways in which companies’ attitudes and activities have changed over the past four years with regards to big data — collecting it, storing it, analyzing it, and using it to make business decisions about strategy. Continue reading…

2. 6 Predictions For Big Data Analytics And Cognitive Computing In 2016

Big data analytics is the next trillion-dollar market, says Michael Dell. IDC has a more modest and specific prediction, forecasting the market for big data technology and services to grow at a 23.1% compound annual growth rate, reaching $48.6 billion in 2019. Continue reading…

3. 7 Important Big Data Trends for 2016

It is the end of the year again and that means it is time for the Big Data trends for next year. I did that for 2014, I did it for 2015 and now it is time for 2016. What is awaiting us in 2016? Which Big Data trends will have an impact on the global Big Data domain? How will Big Data affect organizations in 2016? Let’s have a look at seven of the most important Big Data trends for the year 2016. Continue reading…

4. Lack of Big Data Talent Hampers Corporate Analytics

A shallow talent pool of skilled workers to analyze big data, combined with the challenge of weeding out bad information, continues to cause nightmares for CIOs.

kalid khan at kearney Khalid Khan, partner at A.T. Kearney.
Two-thirds of companies that possess even the most advanced analytics capabilities cannot hire enough people who can generate insights from corporate data, according to new research from A.T. Kearney, which surveyed 430 senior executives. Moreover, companies will need 33 percent more big data talent over the next five years, says Khalid Khan, A.T. Kearney partner and co-author of the research. Continue reading…

5. Big Data Still Requires Humans To Make Meaningful Connections

Big data is a big deal, make no mistake about it, but it’s probably not as big a deal as it’s going to be eventually when we really figure out how to make good use of it. For now, we have this muddled middle where we understand the value of the data, but most organizations and governments don’t know how to use that data to its full potential. Continue reading…

6. The 10 Coolest Big Data Products Of 2015

The big data technology market remains one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. In November, market research firm IDC said the market for big data-related infrastructure, software and services will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.1 percent through 2019, with spending reaching $48.6 billion in 2019. Specifically, sales of big data software are expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.2 percent during that span. Continue reading…

7. Where Does Big Data Fit Into Marketing?

Where does your big data fit in to your marketing? This is a very tricky question. Of course you want to capture customer information as much as possible so that your marketing team can be much smarter about the method they use to communicate to prospects and existing customers. BUT, marketers first need to decide if the brand wants them to create a sales promotional strategy or a brand building strategy. Continue reading…

8. Misconceptions Regarding Big Data And Why It’s Important To Clarify Those?

There is a lot of hype around big data, and this, to a certain extent is harmful for businesses. Sounds shocking? Well, since there are so many articles, research reports and studies about big data, people are provided with more than enough information, and this, somewhere down the line, makes big data look too easy to understand. This is where all the problems begin since even before knowing the original features and characteristics of this new phenomenon, people start assuming a lot. As a result, a lot of misconceptions get generated. Continue reading…

9. Big Buzz About Big Data: 5 Ways Big Data Is Changing Finance

Big Data is a big deal… particularly for financial markets. As the CEO of a Big Data company, I’d like to share with you some insights into this shift, which is spurring transparency, capital availability and better risk awareness. Add in the coolness and creativity factors – more Sand Hill Road, less Wall Street – and it’s clear that Big Data is already having big impacts on always-changing financial markets. And this is change that you, not just your IT professionals, should believe in. Continue reading…

10. Where Mobile is Failing: Big Data

Big data has been a big buzzword in advertising for several years now. Alas, for many mobile advertisers, it remains just that: A buzzword and not something they’re actually using to better target their ads or focus their media plans. That’s according to a new study conducted by Forrester Research and real time ad bidding platform AdTheorent. Continue reading…

Big Data’s Relationship with Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing – Big Data Roundup

1. Big Data’s Relationship with Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing

It seems like you can’t pick up a technical magazine without reading about how big data is changing the world—and the untold implications of this technology. But what the heck is big data? And didn’t we already solve this thing with business intelligence and data warehousing?

Big data, or BD, is the collection of transaction-level detail for analysis. The data is kept close to the transactional detail so it can be examined for hidden trends only seen when you analyze the individual transactions. The data can come from different sources but is analyzed in a common pool. This is most often a feed (or copy) of the transactions as they occur; they are streamed to the BD solution. Often, the value of the data is very time-dependent; the sooner the information is available, the more valuable it is.

There are four key terms used when talking about BD:
[Continue Reading…]

2. Visualizing Big Data with augmented and virtual reality: challenges and research agenda

This paper provides a multi-disciplinary overview of the research issues and achievements in the field of Big Data and its visualization techniques and tools. The main aim is to summarize challenges in visualization methods for existing Big Data, as well as to offer novel solutions for issues related to the current state of Big Data Visualization. This paper provides a classification of existing data types, analytical methods, visualization techniques and tools, with a particular emphasis placed on surveying the evolution of visualization methodology over the past years. Based on the results, we reveal disadvantages of existing visualization methods. Despite the technological development of the modern world, human involvement (interaction), judgment and logical thinking are necessary while working with Big Data. Therefore, the role of human perceptional limitations involving large amounts of information is evaluated. Based on the results, a non-traditional approach is proposed: we discuss how the capabilities of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality could be applied to the field of Big Data Visualization. We discuss the promising utility of Mixed Reality technology integration with applications in Big Data Visualization. Placing the most essential data in the central area of the human visual field in Mixed Reality would allow one to obtain the presented information in a short period of time without significant data losses due to human perceptual issues. Furthermore, we discuss the impacts of new technologies, such as Virtual Reality displays and Augmented Reality helmets on the Big Data visualization as well as to the classification of the main challenges of integrating the technology.
[Continue Reading…]

3. A Successful Approach to the Big Data Adoption Journey

Randy Bean recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “Big Data represents a business adoption paradox: It promises speed, but successful business adoption takes time. When I advise executives or speak to business groups, I encourage organizations to view business transforming initiatives like Big Data as a journey. Success ultimately depends upon organizational alignment, process change, and people. Organizations need to develop a long-term plan and destination with many checkpoints along the way. True there are opportunities for “quick wins”– to ensure credibility, build organizational support, establish momentum, and secure funding—but for the most part, patience and persistence are essential.”
[Continue Reading…]

4. Why your next big database decision may be a graph

NoSQL databases are clearly on the rise, but not all NoSQL is created equal.

After all, 451 Research recently discontinued its longstanding tracking of NoSQL database popularity, arguing that since “none of the top 10 look like changing places any time soon, and none of the players outside stand any chance of breaking into the top 10, the time has come to retire the NoSQL LinkedIn Skills Index.”
[Continue Reading…]

Big Data and its Challenges

Digitally progressing towards a world with immense amount of data, businesses are constantly looking for a feasible and practical way to analyze the information so that this flood of the data can be utilized in a meaningful manner for growth and development. Data is being collected at the unprecedented pace, and it is coming from the gamut of resources, available as soon as it is generated. Big Data is a broad term involving initiatives and technologies that involve massive, diverse and continuously changing data. It can changed the way organizations are doing business, gaining insight, are dealing with their customers and are making decisions by offering a synergy and extension to the existing processes. Big data is also changing the way businesses are approaching product development, human resources and operations. It is touching every aspect of the society including retails, mobile services, life sciences, financial services and physical sciences. It can be touted as the biggest opportunity, as well as the biggest challenge for the statistical sciences because if the numbers are crunched accurately, Big Data can offer huge rewards.

Companies may know the types of result they are seeking but these might be difficult to obtain. Or, significant data mining might be required to obtain specific answers. For statisticians, the challenge is dealing with the data which is not only big, but also very different. They need to deal with “Look-everywhere effect” and extract meaningful information from a huge haystack of data. Additionally there are challenges with the algorithms as they often do not scale up as expected and can get extremely slow when gigabyte-scale dataset is involved. To improve the speed and theoretical accuracy, these algorithms need to be improved, or new algorithms need to be designed. The algorithm must be capable of handling next-generation functional data, and should be able to look through data for hidden relationships and patterns.

Another challenge is the analysis of too many correlations, several of which can be bogus that may appear statistically significant, and magnitude of the big data can amplify such errors. Additionally, big data is quite efficient in detecting subtle correlations, however, it is left to the imagination of the user which correlations are meaningful, and this may not always be an easy task. The statistical analysis cannot be a wholesale replacement to the scientific inquiry, and users must start with the basic understanding of the data. Also, once the users gain the understanding of the big data, it can easily be gamed. A good example could be “spamdexing” or “Google bombing” where companies can artificially elevate website search placement. At times, the results of the analysis may not be intentionally gamed, but they can be less robust than expected. Most of the big data comes from the web, which is a big data itself, and this increases the chances of reinforcing the error.

Undoubtedly, big data is a valuable tool and it has made a critical impact in selected few realms. However, it has proved its worth in analysing common things, falling short in the analysis of less commonly used information, not living up to the perceived hype. Big data should be here to stay, however it is not a silver bullet, and we need to be realistic about its potential and limitations.

Data analytics isn’t about Insights. Idexcel Big Data Roundup

1. How To Use Data To Outsmart Your Competitors

The pressure’s on to use data to outsmart your competitors. Here are six ways companies can use data to imagine and even re-imagine what’s possible.

“Business as usual” can be a risky business practice, especially when there’s cultural resistance to change. While some companies are embracing agile practices, there are a number of data-related barriers that keep companies from reaching their potential, most of which have to do with people, processes, and technology. Read more…

2. Ten Ways Big Data Is Revolutionizing Supply Chain Management

Bottom line: Big data is providing supplier networks with greater data accuracy, clarity, and insights, leading to more contextual intelligence shared across supply chains.

Forward-thinking manufacturers are orchestrating 80% or more of their supplier network activity outside their four walls, using big data and cloud-based technologies to get beyond the constraints of legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems. For manufacturers whose business models are based on rapid product lifecycles and speed, legacy ERP systems are a bottleneck. Designed for delivering order, shipment and transactional data, these systems aren’t capable of scaling to meet the challenges supply chains face today. Read more…

3. How Data Projects Drive Revenue Goals

The vast majority of organizations have either already implemented a big data project or plan to do so, according to a recent survey from CA Technologies. The report, titled “The State of Big Data Infrastructure: Benchmarking Global Big Data Users to Drive Future Performance,” indicates that a great deal of these projects are integrated throughout the entire organization. Companies are pursuing big data and analytics primarily to improve the consumer experience while adding to their customer base. However, there are formidable challenges, including a lack of trained staffing to make data projects succeed, as well as the inherent complications of such implementations. Read more…

4. Importance of Big Data Analytics for Business Growth

Until recent years companies have always evaded the question of using data analytics for business execution, leave alone big data. Most of the time it was due to cost of analysis that the organisations kept in mind while keeping away from data analytics. With everything going digital, data is pouring in from all kinds of sources imaginable. Organisations are getting inundated with terabytes and petabytes of data in different formats from sources like operational and transactional systems, customer service points, and mobile and web media. The problem of such huge data is storage and with no proper utilisation of the data, collecting and storing is a waste of resource. Earlier it had been difficult to process such data without relevant technology. Read more…