Organizing Trends: Big Data

If you’ve ever been overseas and attempted to make a credit card purchase without giving your bank advance notice you may have been denied payment. It’s a security measure, which although frustrating in the heat of the moment, is designed to protect us from fraud—something I’ve grown to appreciate. If you’ve indeed found yourself in that predicament (as I did a few weeks back in London) you may have also gotten an email, text, or even social media mention within seconds of the attempted transaction asking you to verify if it’s you. How do they do that?

Have you also noticed that websites you’re visiting have gotten much smarter in the types of ads they throw at you? Many general sites I visit these days often have banner ads related to various casino offers. How did they know that I might have an interest in that area?

The answer is “Big Data” and that’s this month’s key trend. All businesses are trying to get smarter by learning more and more about their business, their customers, and their customer’s experiences.

Whether it be utilizing cookies, purchasing Google Ad words, or similar means within social media channels like LinkedIn and Facebook, marketers have better tools to strategically target prospective customers. Furthermore, companies have begun monitoring their operations in a variety of new ways to provide executives with more data-driven decision making ability.

Some service providers such as banks and hotels have begun monitoring lines via video to assess customer wait times. Others have placed sensors inside moving machinery to manage efficiency and predict/minimize downtime. Others involved in the shipment of products closely monitor the driving of their trucks to ensure on time delivery and ideal routes. These are all examples of how companies are trying to utilize modern technology to make better decisions around their business units. The goals may be to innovate and drive revenue. They may be to minimize expenses and operate more efficiently. Or, they could be both.

Just this week AT&T and IBM announced a partnership to help cities better manage their infrastructure by providing resources around big data analytics. The two companies said in a joint statement that they will "combine their analytic platforms, cloud, and security technologies with privacy in mind to gain more insights on data collected from machines in a variety of industries." Additionally, "…the new collaboration… will offer insights from crowdsourcing, mobile applications, sensors and analytics on the cloud, enabling all organizations to better listen, respond and predict."

Giving a peak behind the G2E curtain, you may not realize it at the time, but as you’re walking throughout our tradeshow we’ve strategically placed floor sensors in the aisle carpet that track the amount of foot traffic throughout the show floor. We also track proximity of mobile devices at various locations all with the goal of understanding traffic flow. We can tell the amount of impressions, directions, and time spent. The data we get back helps us with a number of logistical matters relative to organizing the show, including the strategic source of information that determines how booth space and advertising is sold to exhibitors.

Getting back to our analysis of industry trends, access to big data, and data-driven decision making, are becoming increasingly more important to gaming operators and suppliers alike. With new markets continuing to emerge domestically and abroad, as well as the convergence of online gaming with land-based operations, the importance of this type of technology is huge. Look for more suppliers and service providers on the G2E show floor outlining these types of products, and more content in the conference program explaining the benefits. It’s an exciting world out there which we aim to embrace.