Coke, Lenovo queue up in Bangalore to figure it out

Namma city is emerging as not just the IT hub, but also the analytics hub of the country. Multi-national firms like Coca Cola, Lenovo and restaurant brand Ruby Tuesday are queuing up in the city to get their data analysed.

Analytics—that deals with analysing raw data for the purpose of deriving business related conclusions and predicting outcomes—is considered crucial for improving workings of establishments.

Companies from all spheres, including banking, financial services, hospitality, healthcare, technology, retail and FMCG; all of whom generate large volumes of data, need to get their data analysed to aid in their plans and strategies.

According to a report by financial services firm Avendus Capital, India's market for analytics will reach $1.15 billion by 2015, and the country will continue to enjoy leadership position in analytics services over other countries like China, Philippines, Latin America, etc.

And like IT services, Bangalore is seeing a spurt in companies providing assistance to MNCs in analytics. Michael Dillon, vice-president, global marketing strategy, Coca Cola Company, says analytics drives better decision making. Top performing firms embrace analytics five times more than low performers, says Dillon.

Furthermore, analytics is now imperative for exploring newer business segments before actually venturing into them, says Robert Gannon, vice-president, marketing strategy at Ruby Tuesday.

Being in the restaurant segment, if we have to understand the retail concept that will draw in younger crowds, we have to get data on consumer behaviour and spending regularly analysed, says Gannon.

Experts say analytics firms in the city are doling out services to these MNCs, just like the BPOs and IT firms have been doing for sometime now.

According to Pritha Choudhuri, CEO of Analytics Quotient, based in Electronic City, this is leading to an increase in demand for analytics professionals. Anyone with a quantitative bent of mind, who can play with data, and who is used to working with numbers is welcome, says Choudhuri.