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September - 2014 - issue > CXO View Point
From Big Data to Smart Data with Predictive Analytics
Ashutosh Malaviya
CTO-SmartZip Analytics, Inc
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Ashutosh Malaviya, CTO, SmartZip Analytics, Inc.
SmartZip Analytics, Inc. offers real estate analytics and predictive marketing solutions that enable companies to reach their customers. Founded in 2009, headquartered at Pleasanton, CA, SmartZip secured a total funding of $18.6 million from Intel Capital, Claremont Creek Ventures, Crest Capital Ventures, Step5 Venture Partners and Northpoint Financial Group.

It's just the beginning era of big data. Next big thing is transformation of big software. The innovations of tomorrow will be in the consumption of larger, more complex data that will require the dismantling of Big Software. Big Software is still around; sitting in corporate infrastructures like dinosaurs, slow moving and failing to evolve. There are a lot of inefficiencies because of bad decision making which is primarily due to lack of timely, accurate, and actionable information. The evolution of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Internet-Of-Things (IOT) will provide more timely data and software.

The trend of data driven decision making with Smart Data instead of Big Data is observed (and this may behave slightly different in various verticals), and the continued, rapid replacement of Big Software with Software as a Service. Vertical specific rules and constraints will drive the evolution of SaaS experience along with other consumer activities like searching, buying, and selling. The bottom line is that Big Data has to be converted into Smart Data for easier consumption, better decision making, more automation, improved efficiency, and intuitive visualizations.

SaaS platforms are going to eat the market share of large CRM/ERP/BI solutions. Dominance of SaaS based products which will not only be used by consumer and SMB sectors but also play a big role in large enterprises and government institutions.

Intersect Recent Market Hurdles

Software as a Service is very promising, but it is neither flexible nor user friendly. It needs innovation, improved user experience paradigms such as responsive design, integrating better with existing data silos and vertical context. There is also a two-fold problem of balanced complexity. On one hand, products are not allowing enough configurations to keep things simple, but that leaves users with incomplete feature sets or a wrong set of features. On the other hand, if a lot of configuration is needed then user experience suffers and adoption is difficult.

An evolution has to happen so that a middle ground is found and the right set of configurations and features are created. The newer, smarter SaaS technologies of the future will be using predictive models and other actionable intelligence to transform Search, CRM/ERP/BI solutions, and marketing automation in the coming years.

Subjugate the Obstacles

Smartzip has a small development team in a highly cutting edge startup so they run very thin. Aspects of product development from data cleansing, ETL, analytics, UI design and application software development to IT, BI, QA, technical support, and internal software for sales and services are covered by Smartzip. The balancing act is in managing the delivery of quality software and minimizing the overheads. This is achieved by hiring the right people, using Open Source technologies and agile processes.

In regards to the Bay Area, the war for talent with local tech titans is another challenge. Due to rapid growth, some of the big companies are hiring talent at an unprecedented pace leaving a smaller talent pool for startups. Some of these companies are not even able to utilize them effectively and, in my humble opinion, they are hurting innovation..

Big Challenges for 'Big' Leaders

1. Biggest challenge for a technical business is to develop the right product for the right audience at the right time.
2. Finding the right people with the required skill sets for the job, who can communicate effectively, and create an environment
conducive for collaboration.
3. Measuring the success of business and correlating that with product initiatives, people, and projects.

Motivated to the Path of Innovation

Innovation and creativity happens with propitious environment for collaboration, free thinking, and talented team. This can be achieved by continuous learning through new courses in latest techniques and methods. No question should be a stupid question and nobody should be afraid to ask questions in meetings or collaboration sessions. Taking some time off for a walk or for a ping pong game is very important. Physical activities and meditation enhance the brain function for innovation. "I am an avid runner with few Marathons behind me and that gives me immense energy to think and innovate," says Ashutosh Malaviya, CTO at Smartzip. (As told to Kamalika Roy Chowdhury)
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