The real trend this year is not technology. It’s about helping business people to make better decisions, and actually change the way companies are doing business. How can big data be used? The curtain raiser 2012: The Year Analytics Means Business lists that:

1) Red Bull has been able to speed up and simplify their data warehousing environments.

2) Colgate-Palmolive, Provimi, and Danone use vast data amounts to optimize their production and sales.

3) Medtronic uses data to access and analyze the large amount of complaints and feedback data they receive about their products, combine it with other data sources, and provide it to business users through dynamic interfaces.

4) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt uses sophisticated, risk-based forecasting. The company prints books in January or February, when printing is much cheaper. In order to minimize excess inventory, it has carefully analyzed all the causes of previous forecasts, and now takes account of all the different facts that influence book obsolescence.

5) International grocery chain Casino is rolling out a new mobile shopping application for its customers. It provides data from its enterprise systems directly to its customers, resulting in increased shopping convenience and increased customer loyalty.

It is a good read by Timo Elliot (@timoelliot). Note: it is a very SAP-centric article.