Analytics experts and data scientists say that big data from multi-structured data sources are having the greatest impact on business applications for digital marketing optimization, according to a webcast survey conducted by Teradata, the analytic data solutions company.

The survey of quantitative analysts and experts followed a live Teradata-Aster Data webcast with guest speaker IDC Vice PresidentDan Vesset: "Big Data Analytics Comes of Age: Unlock the Power of Multi-structured Data" which covered the market forces driving the need for next-generation analytic platforms. The program,available online, also covers best practices among leading organizations and example use cases on big data for digital marketing optimization, social network and relationship analysis, fraud prevention, and applications from machine-generated data.

"Businesses everywhere are feeling the impact of the big data revolution and specific types of multi-structured data are driving new business opportunities," saidRandy Lea, vice president, Teradata's Aster Center of Innovation. "To get value from big data, 'quants' or data scientists are becoming analytic innovators who create tremendous business value within an organization, quickly exploring and uncovering game-changing insights from vast volumes of data, as opposed to merely accessing transactional data for operational reporting."

Randy Leawill be speaking at theO’Reilly STRATA SUMMIT on Big DataSeptember 20-21inNew York City. His session is titled “Where Did Your Marketing Dollars Go? Digital Marketing Optimization and Social Network Analysis.” The Lea session is scheduled for9 am Wednesday September 21and will cover the explosion of new customer communication channels and the opportunities this phenomenon is creating for businesses.

Big data is a term commonly applied to large data sets where volume, variety, velocity, or complexity are beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to efficiently capture, manage, and process. Examples include Web logs, sensor networks, social media, medical records and more.

According to Teradata,customers should act quicklyto gain the business advantages created by the emerging class of quants or data scientists. Their skills can be described as a mix of technical and analytical, combined with the acumen of business entrepreneurs.

When asked "Which applications (using multi-structured data) have the biggest impact on your business?" webcast survey respondents ranked these across five categories.

• Digital marketing optimization (e.g., web analytics, attribution, golden path analysis)
• Data exploration and discovery (e.g., data scientists, identifying new data-driven products, new markets)
• Fraud detection and prevention (e.g., revenue protection, site integrity & uptime),
• Social network and relationship analysis (e.g., influencer marketing, crowdsourcing, attrition prediction)
• Machine-generated data analytics (e.g., Remote device insight, location-based intelligence).