From Baseball to Banking–Data, a game-changer

At a Tableau Conference, many interesting user experiences galvanized to remind various industry players about the power of well-used data

We are looking at an elephant through a microscope. Yes, that’s how Craig Turrell, Head, P2P Digital, Standard Chartered Bank prefers to describe the enormity, and untapped potential, of data.

Think of 7.56 quintillion records when you think of the maths of business science and analytics, he said. “Today people look at less than 0.0001 percent of data. Business science is an important lever for financial services. It is a new class of AI-powered analytics to put data science in the hands of people.”

He also explained what makes this flavor of analytics tick. The system should be big. Machines have no cognitive overload. They need enough data to achieve the same level of performance. He also urged players to design a good process and strategy for AI-oriented towards ethically, and efficiently, collecting the right data. “We need to cultivate the data culture as well.”

At a conference session, he was sharing how and why his team could leverage these strengths in the recent past to address precise business goals. “Four years back, we had trillion questions with years of cost and headcount data. We had all the data but we struggled. Tableau helped with a good design paradigm. We also worked on redefining data democratization, full-stack technology, heuristic design approach, no code models, redesigned server topology for decentralized finance (Defi) etc. Now we have fast mathematical algorithms, 5 ms response time the largest hyper-DB of 11 trillion records, the ability to model data with neural relationships and we are exploiting ‘out of the box AI.”

Beaming and proud, almost like him, but in an entirely different playground were data champions from the Sports domain. Mark Bashuk, Senior Director, Business Analytics, Oakland Athletics illustrated the effective use of Tableau dashboards for price ticket corrections. He also talked about how data can help in curating a better game experience with add-on tools like real-time parking dashboards so that a person’s journey is improved right from the point when they enter a parking space or game building.

Alongside, echoing such data-driven advantages, was Randall Pulfer, Analyst, Texas Rangers Baseball Club. In this sports-focused session, these experts talked about how data works as a strong team player in areas like optimising performance, dynamic ticket sales, executive insights, and insights for coaches and players.

Candra McRae, Lead Solutions Engineer, Tableau also explained how AI-powered data analytics can be a catalyst for a new fillip in decision-making and business strategy for insurance players. “AI can strengthen faster and better decisions and take away the guesswork. For instance, an insurance agent can look at policies up for renewal, and here AI can tell him the percentage of chance of renewal. This, then, guides the insurance person to improve the probability rate by planning interactions with the customer or addressing price sensitivity or anything else that is apt.”

While a lot has turned easy, possible, and affordable with data analytics; doing it right needs attention to some important areas. As Sarah Grauf, SVP, Event Strategy and Services, SF Giants reflected, “We need to be skilled and aware about how to use data once you have it.” She was underlining the ability to communicate about data and building consensus so that everybody can make data-enabled decisions together – and argued that this ability is as important as having good and enough data on your side.

Remember key tenets like the ABC of data (AI, BI, and Collective Intelligence), focus on data culture, and the ability to make your people embrace this data evolution. As hands-on users of data from various organisations recommended, once these aspects are taken care of, the data game is a home run.

By Pratima Harigunani

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in