While I’ve grown cautious of this buzzword [agile analytics], it is important to acknowledge that today’s data is more diverse and messy than ever before. Agile analytics involves the use of both SQL (relational) and NoSQL technologies to create a polyglot persistence infrastructure for data management. The ability to align your data storage technology to the nature of your data is key to flexibility and speed. — Ken Collier, director, Agile Analytics
Just about every proprietary [analytics] software vendor out there has announced some kind of connection with open source R, really on the basis that their users want access to R on the platforms their using. To us this just means more validation of the utility of R in organizations … — David Smith, chief community officer, Revolution Analytics
Mobile is definitely a game-changer. Over the last few years, we’ve seen broadcasters make more of their content available to consumers online and through their own branded apps. The cable and satellite TV companies have started delivering apps that effectively turn tablets into additional TV screens. And, consumers are watching more video on their smartphones — 25 percent more in Q4 2013 than the year prior according to actual behavior captured with our mobile on-device meter. Ad dollars are following the eyeballs. We need to be ready to measure all of this so our clients can monetize it. This is definitely pushing us, and is the impetus behind us rolling out both linear mobile measurement and dynamic mobile measurement this year. — Megan Clarken, exec-VP, Nielson
Despite the apparent popularity of data-driven decision-making, however, intuition is in fact valued highly. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) [in a survey by Economist Intelligence Unit] say they trust their own intuition when it comes to decision-making. Even among the data-driven decision-makers, over two-thirds (68 percent) agree with that statement. — Jane Bird, author of the EIU report, “Decisive action: How businesses make decisions and how they could do it better”
Samsung has mistakenly assumed that it can maintain its 18% handset margins by focusing on hardware. Consequently, it has been willing to cede complete control of the ecosystem to Google. This has ensured that Google will grow nicely driven by mobile advertising revenues while we expect Samsung to experience declining earnings. — Richard Windsor of Edison Investment Research
[With a valuation of $18.2 billion, Uber is] the most-valued startup. I guess you have to give your hats off to that — no matter how they achieved it [referring to pushing the limits on regulations and defying city bans on ridesharing]. — Sam Hamadeh, founder and CEO, research firm PrivCo