Analytics and Big Data: Emerging trends and their impact on our lives

• Author: Kunal Saha
• Date: 01 November 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1944
• Published date: 01 November 2019

PRACTITIONER PAPER

Analytics and Big Data: Emerging trends and their impact on

our lives

Kunal Saha

Department of Finance, Institute for Financial

Managementand Research,Chennai, University

Correspondence

Kunal Saha, Institute for Financial

Managementand Research, Chennai, University

Email: kunal.saha@ifmr.ac.in

Companies are increasingly turning to Analytics to gain a competitive edge, provid-

ing decision makers with better insights. As they do, firms must resolve unique

demands on their Information Technology resources and processes. This paper

attempts to review the chronology of the adoption of Analytics. Next, it highlights

how various economic sectors have incorporated Analytics and the resulting

changes in the ways businesses interact with their customers. Further, the paper

explores the cutting edge innovations in the Analytics domain. Subsequently, this

paper tries to do an impact analysis on all these developments of our lives. Finally,

the opportunities and threats, and how they may stand to affect our future, are

discussed.

1|INTRODUCTION

Businesses have always strived to improve efficiency by studying their

processes, collecting data on various metrics and analyzing these data

to come up with insights. This process became more technical with the

advent of computers. The more powerful computers became, the

more sophisticated analytical techniques could be employed. This is

where terms like Business Analytics, Data Mining, and Big Data come

into the picture.

Various attempts have been made to define these terms. However,

the definitions usually overlap, and hence, no one definition can claim

to be comprehensive in its own right.

One interpretation of Business Analytics indicates that it is an

umbrella term including data warehousing, business intelligence, and

analytic applications.

Another interpretation may use “Business Analytics”to indicate

some level of vertical/horizontal domain knowledge tied with statisti-

cal or predictive Analytics.

More importantly, there are two things worth differentiating:

a. The first is the human aspect of Analytics—the need to get the

most value out of information. With the increasing complexity of

the world economy, deriving insights from data is getting more

complex. Issues that stop us from getting value out of information

include culture, politics, privacy, and security concerns. What data

to collect and how to share it are questions for which answers are

continuously evolving.

b. The second is the technical aspect—the level of analytical compe-

tence in terms of mathematical theory and technology that can

be used to help provide useful insights. This obviously does change

over time.

The term Big Data is used to refer to large and/or complex data sets.

Although large amount of data provides more statistical power,

higher complexity can lead to wrong conclusions (Breur, 2016). The

complexity is associated with three key concepts: volume, variety,

and velocity. Other concepts incorporated later were veracity and

value (O'Leary, 2013).

The concept of Business Analytics dates back to the late 1950s

when an IBM researcher used the term “Business Intelligence”in an

article (Luhn, 1958).

Business Intelligence evolved from the decision support

systems, which were introduced in the 1960s, and evolved in use

and scope through the mid‐1980s. The mid‐1970s saw the

introduction of Relational Databases, Data Warehouses, and

Management Information Systems. The 1980s brought with it the

rise of material requirements planning and manufacturing resource

planning.

In the 1990s, enterprise resource planning systems came to rep-

resent a larger whole. Online Analytical Processing, Data

Warehousing, and eventually, Business Intelligence rose to

Received: 4 March 2019 Accepted: 7 March 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1944

J Public Affairs. 2019; :e1944.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1944

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of8

of Madras, India

of Madras, India.

19