What is web intelligence, and why is it important to your business? According to Wikipedia, the definition of web intelligence is “the area of study, research and application of artificial intelligence and information technology on the Web in order to create the next generation of products and services based on the Internet.”
We think about web intelligence a little differently. The term, “big data,” is now synonymous with the ever-expanding fire hose of information produced by things like social media, smartphone apps, APIs, and the connected world in general. So, we can think of web intelligence as the byproduct of the collection, analysis, and evaluation of big data.
Web intelligence is domain agnostic, yet its benefits can be very specific to any industry or business needs. Organizations of all sizes, in one way or another, are impacted by data transmission to the Internet. The goal of such initiatives are things like time savings, increased revenue, etc., but it’s more about preventing cyber attacks or winning elections or improving disaster response and relief efforts.
Examples of Web Intelligence for Politics, Cyber, and Disaster Response
In the wake of incidents like Target’s holiday data breach in which 40 million+ credit card numbers were compromised or Living Social’s breach back in April in which 50 million user passwords and birth dates were exposed, many organizations are seeking to firm up their cyber security postures by implementing a holistic intelligence program.
An important piece of that puzzle is persistent monitoring of threat alerts and updates provided by organizations like US-CERT, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, security companies like McAfee and Symantec as well as hundreds of cyber-security related websites and blogs. There are other sources like the National Vulnerability Database, which contains 60,000 critical vulnerabilities and exposures, including the software and applications that are impacted. All of these data sources can be aggregated and used with internal data like actual vulnerability scans to identify and mitigate risk.
Another good example comes from the political arena, specifically, the entry into a contentious 2014 Congressional election season. Political campaigns are looking for new ways to take advantage of social media and capture the swing vote. With a web intelligence platform campaign, you can collect new data from blogs, message boards, forums and social media and fuse and analyze that data alongside polling data to stay on top of the competition, focus their efforts, and measure the sentiment around their candidate or a particular issue.
And lastly, during the immediate aftermath of natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy or Typhoon Haiyan, local governments, relief organizations, and insurance companies can track weather conditions and map damage reports, along with eyewitness accounts and crowd source data from social media to direct resources and respond to individuals in need. Read this post for more information about disaster response.
What is the Impact?
What’s the impact of these examples on the respective businesses affected? The best example would be in the cyber security realm, where a single incident can cost millions of dollars and have the potential to destroy a brand’s reputation in incredibly short order. An intelligence program designed to deal with threats of this type doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. The intelligence cycle that’s been used for decades by the CIA and other intelligence agencies is a practical and proven model that can easily adapt to any industry or business function.
More data is now openly available and easily accessible because of the Internet. Many organizations already have access to the data necessary to provide them insights that can make their business smarter, more profitable and more secure, yet they simply lack the technical capabilities to process and analyze it. To make matters worse, some organizations pay millions of dollars for data subscriptions that are either underutilized or duplicative of data they already have.
How to get started with a web intelligence initiative?
What’s the best way to tackle a web intelligence initiative? Once you’ve decided to invest in one, you’ll need to identify a platform that can collect, process, and analyze data. Doing the research and due diligence before selecting an analytic solution is vitally important to the success of your project and its Return on Investment.
Before speaking with a solutions provider, it’s essential to identify specific needs, expectations and goals and then communicate them early in the procurement process so you’re not wasting any time. There are several items you need to consider:
-
Whether an off-the-shelf or proprietary solution is right for you
-
The types and volume of data you need to integrate
-
What visualizations you will need to extract insight out of your data
-
If there are existing systems or applications that need to integrate with the platform
Once the software has been selected, you must identify and prioritize the data necessary to get the job done, so it can be ingested into the system and processed so you can hit the ground running. Before your analytics solution is in production, translate the intelligence cycle so that it aligns with your organization’s culture and operations and establish cross-functional teams so the subject matter experts, analysts, and engineers are collaborating.
It’s also critical to ensure your operation is agile. Intelligence is an iterative process requiring constant evaluation of the questions you need to answer and the data and message needed to satisfy the requirements. Continuously refining and prioritizing information will ultimately increase the efficiency and productivity of your analysts.
Arguably, the most important piece of the intelligence process is the dissemination. The findings from evaluating intelligence must be effectively communicated throughout an organization in order to facilitate decision making, affect change, and ultimately, achieve the desired goals of your intelligence initiative.
Web intelligence is the solution to the big data problem, whether it’s crisis informatics, financial services, cyber security, or supply chain analysis. There are tremendous benefits for organizations that implement a web intelligence program before they need to – either in responding to unforeseen incidents or to catch up to the competition. If you are looking to implement a web intelligence solution, contact us to see if Ikanow is right for you.
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Learn more from IKANOW:
Visit the Resource Center
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Why is it Important to Implement a Web Intelligence Initiative?
What is web intelligence, and why is it important to your business? According to Wikipedia, the definition of web intelligence is “the area of study, research and application of artificial intelligence and information technology on the Web in order to create the next generation of products and services based on the Internet.”
We think about web intelligence a little differently. The term, “big data,” is now synonymous with the ever-expanding fire hose of information produced by things like social media, smartphone apps, APIs, and the connected world in general. So, we can think of web intelligence as the byproduct of the collection, analysis, and evaluation of big data.
Web intelligence is domain agnostic, yet its benefits can be very specific to any industry or business needs. Organizations of all sizes, in one way or another, are impacted by data transmission to the Internet. The goal of such initiatives are things like time savings, increased revenue, etc., but it’s more about preventing cyber attacks or winning elections or improving disaster response and relief efforts.
Examples of Web Intelligence for Politics, Cyber, and Disaster Response
In the wake of incidents like Target’s holiday data breach in which 40 million+ credit card numbers were compromised or Living Social’s breach back in April in which 50 million user passwords and birth dates were exposed, many organizations are seeking to firm up their cyber security postures by implementing a holistic intelligence program.
An important piece of that puzzle is persistent monitoring of threat alerts and updates provided by organizations like US-CERT, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, security companies like McAfee and Symantec as well as hundreds of cyber-security related websites and blogs. There are other sources like the National Vulnerability Database, which contains 60,000 critical vulnerabilities and exposures, including the software and applications that are impacted. All of these data sources can be aggregated and used with internal data like actual vulnerability scans to identify and mitigate risk.
Another good example comes from the political arena, specifically, the entry into a contentious 2014 Congressional election season. Political campaigns are looking for new ways to take advantage of social media and capture the swing vote. With a web intelligence platform campaign, you can collect new data from blogs, message boards, forums and social media and fuse and analyze that data alongside polling data to stay on top of the competition, focus their efforts, and measure the sentiment around their candidate or a particular issue.
And lastly, during the immediate aftermath of natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy or Typhoon Haiyan, local governments, relief organizations, and insurance companies can track weather conditions and map damage reports, along with eyewitness accounts and crowd source data from social media to direct resources and respond to individuals in need. Read this post for more information about disaster response.
What is the Impact?
What’s the impact of these examples on the respective businesses affected? The best example would be in the cyber security realm, where a single incident can cost millions of dollars and have the potential to destroy a brand’s reputation in incredibly short order. An intelligence program designed to deal with threats of this type doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. The intelligence cycle that’s been used for decades by the CIA and other intelligence agencies is a practical and proven model that can easily adapt to any industry or business function.
More data is now openly available and easily accessible because of the Internet. Many organizations already have access to the data necessary to provide them insights that can make their business smarter, more profitable and more secure, yet they simply lack the technical capabilities to process and analyze it. To make matters worse, some organizations pay millions of dollars for data subscriptions that are either underutilized or duplicative of data they already have.
How to get started with a web intelligence initiative?
What’s the best way to tackle a web intelligence initiative? Once you’ve decided to invest in one, you’ll need to identify a platform that can collect, process, and analyze data. Doing the research and due diligence before selecting an analytic solution is vitally important to the success of your project and its Return on Investment.
Before speaking with a solutions provider, it’s essential to identify specific needs, expectations and goals and then communicate them early in the procurement process so you’re not wasting any time. There are several items you need to consider:
Whether an off-the-shelf or proprietary solution is right for you
The types and volume of data you need to integrate
What visualizations you will need to extract insight out of your data
If there are existing systems or applications that need to integrate with the platform
Once the software has been selected, you must identify and prioritize the data necessary to get the job done, so it can be ingested into the system and processed so you can hit the ground running. Before your analytics solution is in production, translate the intelligence cycle so that it aligns with your organization’s culture and operations and establish cross-functional teams so the subject matter experts, analysts, and engineers are collaborating.
It’s also critical to ensure your operation is agile. Intelligence is an iterative process requiring constant evaluation of the questions you need to answer and the data and message needed to satisfy the requirements. Continuously refining and prioritizing information will ultimately increase the efficiency and productivity of your analysts.
Web intelligence is the solution to the big data problem, whether it’s crisis informatics, financial services, cyber security, or supply chain analysis. There are tremendous benefits for organizations that implement a web intelligence program before they need to – either in responding to unforeseen incidents or to catch up to the competition. If you are looking to implement a web intelligence solution, contact us to see if Ikanow is right for you.
Interested in receiving quarterly newsletters from IKANOW?
Learn more from IKANOW:
Visit the Resource Center