Obtaining Value from Big Data for Service Delivery

Big data is an emerging phenomenon that has enormous implications and impacts upon business strategy, profitability, and process improvements. All service systems generate big data these days, especially human-centered service systems such as government (including cities), healthcare, education, retail, finance, etc. It has been characterized as the collection, analysis and use of data characterized by the five Vs: volume, velocity, variety, veracity, and value (of data). As the plethora of data sources grows from sensors, social media, and electronic transactions, new methods for collecting/acquiring, integrating, processing, analyzing, understanding and visualizing is data to provide actionable information and to support integrated and timely senior and executive decision-making are required. Data management and decision-making span many levels, including decision-making at the societal level, public policy and regulations, and decision-making at the organizational level, business models and value propositions, and decision-making at the process level, back-stage and front-stage of service delivery. Data science with application in decision sciences for service delivery is the focus of this book. Major beneficiaries from reading it include executives and practitioners working inf service organizations. This book will help middle managers, senior and executive managers to understand what big data is; how to recognize, collect, process and analyze it; how to store and manage it; how to obtain useful information from it; and how to assess its contribution to operational, tactical, and strategic decisionmaking in service-oriented organizations