The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Accenture have announced a five-year research collaboration to develop advanced analytics solutions. The alliance's research aims to close the gap between the advance of analytics technologies and their successful application in specific industry and government environments. The Accenture and MIT Alliance in Business Analytics combines Accenture's industry and analytics expertise with MIT's scientific and technological leadership. Its two streams of collaboration cover the challenges of harnessing big data and new approaches to improve the science of decision-making. The alliance will be headed by Narendra Mulani, senior managing director, Accenture Analytics, and David Simchi-Levi, professor of civil and environmental engineering and engineering systems at MIT. “Organizations recognize the need to develop analytics capabilities that turn data into actionable insights in order to attain a competitive edge and growth,” said Mulani. “The challenge comes in fine tuning and applying analytics technologies to very specific issues and our studies show that organizations are not currently satisfied with the return on their analytics investment. Our alliance with one of the world's most prestigious research institutes will help our clients achieve better outcomes driven by their analytics efforts.” A recent Accenture study of organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom revealed that the adoption of analytics is growing and that, compared to a similar analysis conducted three years ago, the use of analytics as a primarily predictive tool has tripled. However, only 22 percent of the respondents said they were very satisfied with the business outcomes delivered by their analytics investments to date and only 39 percent said that the data they generate is relevant to their business strategies. “Through our collaboration with Accenture we believe we can make important progress in creating new knowledge and in tackling some of the many data challenges faced by organizations today,” said Simchi-Levi. The research on big data will cover how organizations can exploit the insights available from the growing volume of external, unstructured data. MIT, Accenture and Accenture clients will explore innovative uses of various data types and develop practical applications of advanced analytics. The parties will also identify ways to combine disparate data sources such as geolocation data, social media data and payments data, to solve unique industry problems in innovative ways. – SG
