From Big Data to Smart Data

4

Summary by Example

This chapter will back up the assertions made previously by describing three examples of solutions that have been implemented in real life.

The aim is to follow the key stages of a purchasing cycle (on an e-commerce platform) and the consumption of a trip away.

The first step will be to discover what is on offer (products, services, price, etc.) on an e-commerce platform where decision-making and action processes have been automated by a recommendation engine, which deals with the customer’s needs and the associated responses. The processes have been automated to make the customer the best offer possible (taking into account the arrival date, the length of stay, location, etc.) in addition to a certain number of alternative offers which are determined by their customer profile in the event a user is surfing “anonymously” (without logging into a customer account) on the e-commerce site.

The second step is the purchase action, again on an e-commerce platform, that is subjected to price and offer availability constraints. Available stock is updated in “real time”, and thus enables or prevents the sale of certain products/prices. This is revenue optimization in the context of selling services (such as a hotel room or transport) and is known as “Yield Management”.

The final step is the use of the service (in our example, a tourist trip) via the optimization of operational performance, which at each stage of the trip will have a direct impact on customer experience. ...