What the Growing Demand for Big Data and Analytics at Financial Services and Healthcare Companies Means for You

Welcome to another edition of PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits and portfolio manager of the Thematic Growth Portfolio at Fabian Wealth Strategies, and these are my one-on-one conversations with the movers and shakers in the business world that take you behind the scenes and in the know. Be sure to check out ChrisVersace.com for more on PowerTrends and past editions of PowerTalk, as well as FabianWealth.com for more on my Thematic Growth Portfolio.

If you are like me, from time to time you hear a bunch of terms thrown about. So far in 2014, I’m hearing the words “big data,” “analytics” and “the Internet of Things” thrown about and I bet you are, too.

Big data and analytics are helping a number of companies make faster, smarter decisions about how to run their businesses.

Here are two examples of what I am talking about:

• Anheuser-Busch — the home of Budweiser beer — recently conducted a massive data-analysis project to better understand the sales tactics of its most successful beer sellers among its 40,000 U.S. retailers.
• Did you know that every day Coca-Cola downloads all of the crazy soda combinations that have been made that day with each of its Coca-Cola Freestyle machines? Why? To see which combinations could be worthy of becoming the next big beverage from Coca-Cola.

It’s not just beer and beverage companies that are using big data to make smarter decisions. In 2013, an executive survey by NewVantage Partners with leading Wall Street firms found that:

• 96% of executives reported having a Big Data initiative planned or in progress.
• 75% of executives cited the need for improved cost performance as the most important driver of Big Data investment.

And yes, those financial services firms are seeing meaningful results from these initiatives.

Joining me to talk about this trend is Sheila Talton, founder of Big Data company Gray Matter Analytics, a consulting firm that specializes in Big Data and analytics for the financial services and healthcare industries. I had a great conversation with Sheila because she tells it like it is; she even shares which companies she thinks are doing it right and which ones are going about it all wrong. Wait until you hear it, I bet you’ll be more than surprised.

NOTE: Fabian Wealth Strategies is a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment adviser, and is not affiliated with Eagle Publishing.

Listen to my behind-the-scenes PowerTalk conversation now, so you are even more in the know:

Access prior PowerTalk interviews here:

How the Growth of the Internet will Affect Privacy and Freedom with Susan Morgan of GNI

Where Mobile Technology is Headed with Liam Griffin of Skyworks Solutions

How to Take a Different Perspective on Cybersecurity — with NSFOCUS

Where Mobile is Heading with Qualcomm’s Bill Davidson

Keith Bliss on What’s Coming Next in the Stock Market — Besides More Volatility