Throwback Thursday: March Madness

March Madness is an important time of year where any team can advance to the next round of the tournament  and any fan can win $1 billion dollars if they fill out a perfect bracket.  As we enter the “Sweet 16” games today, let’s take a look back to last year’s tournament.

Last year, Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) made it to their first NCAA tournament seeded 15th. Not only did they shock most people, they became a bracket busting team when they upset second seeded Georgetown, then San Diego State to become the first 15th seeded team to make it to the “Sweet 16.” While very few people, if any, predicted that FGCU would advance so far, more people turned to the help of data analytics to pick the better team statistically rather than the team with the best record in the hopes of filling out the elusive “perfect bracket”.

There are huge amounts of data sets available to businesses that can help determine marketing strategy, customer satisfaction, employee engagement and more, much like data helps make March Madness predictions. Through solutions like SAP Business Warehouse, NTT DATA Business Solutions can help businesses harness available data and gain a competitive edge. Not only is Business Warehouse SAP’s flagship BI platform, it is now compatible with SAP HANA allowing for real-time data analysis. Big data is only getting bigger and NTT DATA Business Solutions can help your business keep a leg up on the competition with analytical solutions.