July 20178IN MY OPINIONThe term "Cambrian Explosion" is probably a familiar one to those among us who have a passing interest in biology and evolution. Put simply, the Cambrian Explosion refers to a short evolutionary period about 541 million years ago during which the profile of life on the Earth changed fairly dramatically from mostly simple, single-cellular organizations into complex multi-cellular life across both plants and animals. This evolutionary step-change is significant because of the richness--in functional ability to move, eat, respire, reproduce, and appearance--that emerged at the end of this phase. This richness then became the foundation for much of the flora and fauna that we see today on the planet.Now, why is this concept of the Cambrian revolution relevant to banking analytics? Because there are a combination of forces already shaping the banking industry and creating conditions for a similar explosion of ideas and solutions in banking analytics over the next two-three years.·Access to banking through digital and mobile channels to an information-savvy customer base, which expects "digital-native" ease of use for all financial services·The explosion of data storage and computation capabilities·Increased pressure on traditional banks to deliver greater value and a better experience to customers·Lastly, heightened requirements that regulators are placing on streamlined banking activities and particularly around the use of dataTo respond to these forces, banks need to look at innovation differently to make banking and managing finances more convenient and easy on the one hand, and more efficient and well-managed on the other. One of the key points of leverage is better management of data and step-changes to how data analytics is applied within their operations.Key Areas of Analytic Innovation in 2017Analytic innovation will show up in a number of different ways in 2017.·Getting insights out of real-time customer events, through the ability to tap into real-time data streams before the data is archived and stored in a traditional data warehouse. This will help move analytics from a time-lagged, batch activity to closer to the point of customer interaction i.e. moving intelligence to the edge of the organization.The Coming "Cambrian Explosion" in Banking AnalyticsBy Krish Swamy, VP, Advanced Analytics, Wells Fargo [NYSE:WFC]·Analytics on unstructured data (images, text, voice), facilitated through the growth in advanced Machine Learning (ML) algorithms like deep learning. This analytics of "messy data" is going to be a big area for banks to understand customer needs and sentiment in a more nuanced manner, and (importantly) before it shows up in traditional analytic data warehouses.·Cloud-based analytics will be an exploration area for banking institutions to take advantage of the scalability, variety, and elasticity of cloud data environments. What is also attractive is making these investments without incurring the associated Krish Swamy
< Page 7 | Page 9 >