Michael Jahrer, VP of applied machine learning at Opera Solutions, proves his data science mettle by using deep learning to predict who will be a safe driver in the year ahead. 

Porto Seguro, the third-largest insurance company in Brazil, set out to improve its predictions of who would file an insurance claim in the next year. The company sponsored a competition through Kaggle, the premier platform for predictive modeling and analytics competitions, and our own Michael Jahrer, VP of applied machine learning, took home the win. 

In our new podcast series, The Data-Driven CMO, Opera Solutions Senior Vice President John Kelly interviews Julie Cary, CMO of La Quinta Inns and Suites, who has developed a strong reputation as both a traditional and digital marketer in her dde-long tenure with the company. She discusses the steps taken to integrate Big Data and data science into La Quinta’s everyday marketing operations.

Julie shares how she balanced marketing, technology, data science, and IT and secured the necessary budgets to develop a robust digital marketing environment with tangible marketing results.

Opera Solutions is pleased to announce its new podcast series, the Data-Driven CMO. With an increasing focus on technology and Big Data, the marketing profession must rapidly learn how to use such technologies as predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. 

At Opera Solutions, we have helped several global companies transform their marketing using our predictive analytics software. However, technology and products are only part of the story, and we wanted to bring the organizational and human perspective on this transformative shift to light. Our new podcast series opens the discourse through direct conversations with some of the most technically adept marketing leaders. 

What’s the big deal about Millennials? For starters, they’re now the biggest demographic in America. But their needs are unlike any generation before them. Here’s what retailers must know to succeed in marketing to this 80-million–strong population.

Millennials are now the largest living generation in the United States, according to the US Census Bureau. Defined loosely as those born from the early 80s to the early 2000s, Millennials account for roughly 25% of the US population at 83.1 million, exceeding the 75.4 million Baby Boomers in the country. They grew up with household computers, cell phones, and myriad other forms of technology, and they entered the work force during the Great Recession, which has made them price-conscious, tech-savvy shoppers — and robust savers. About half of them still live at home, and they’ve taken over the work force. While most are holding off on marriage, nearly 40% have children and 9% live with domestic partners, indicating that they’re starting families and establishing households (i.e. shopping and spending). Perhaps the most telling stats come from a study from FutureCast, which says that Millennials’ purchases are most influenced by their social circles and that they’re the first generation to influence older generations.

Once again, we are pleased to announce that CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has chosen Opera Solutions for a three-year, $28 million contract that will enable Opera Solutions to provide the operational analytics that drive the Health Insurance Marketplaces of the Affordable Care Act. In this role, Opera Solutions will continue to build on the strong foundation it has built in the first three years of this relationship, adding more advanced analytics and ensuring data integrity across the widespread, diverse data environment within CMS.

Is now the right time to add machine-learning analytics into your charge-capture management system?

ICD-10 is here and chances are, as a provider, you’re as ready for it as you can be, knowing there could be some hiccups and impact on revenues. Most predict that the impact will be confined to inpatient revenues, driven by significant adjustment issues in grouper methodologies. But what if the impact extends well beyond that, to outpatient revenues?

Travel season is upon us, and what used to create excitement and anticipation now creates dread and anxiety. Flying is certainly not what it used to be, but thankfully, it’s also getting a little bit better, thanks to data science and advanced analytics. The world’s largest airlines generate and consume huge amounts of data on hundreds of millions of passengers, and that data is finally paying off for travelers. Of course, not all airlines use data the same way, and some of them hardly use it at all. But here, we take an inside look at those that do to give you the three best ways advanced analytics are improving the travel experience for over 200 million passengers.

2015 could be the year that true personalization finally takes hold, but to achieve it, you’ll need to change the way you think about marketing.

Customers expect to be treated as individuals. They require relevancy and prefer having a relationship with a company that keeps track of their preferences, purchases, and correspondence. Customers are ready for personalized marketing, and now, finally, more and more companies are, too.