Innovating With Analytics

Data-savvy organizations are using analytics to innovate — and, increasingly, to gain competitive advantage.

BY DAVID KIRON, PAMELA KIRK PRENTICE AND RENEE BOUCHER FERGUSON

LOVE IS A FUNNY THING.

It’s intangible. It’s elusive. It’s illogical, completely beyond quantification.

But that doesn’t stop online dating site Match.com from weaving data science into many aspects of its business. Data analytics influences decisions about everything from the company’s marketing and customer care to its mergers and acquisitions, with one end goal: to help people connect and fall in love.

And many do. According to surveys conducted in 2009-2010 by Match.com, one in five new committed relationships in the United States started online, ...