FICO Labs

FICO World 2014 is opening in San Diego next week. With more than 100 sessions presented by experts from more than 80 companies around the world, it might seem overwhelming. Whether you’re an analytic scientist, a data wonk, a wannabe, or a tech-savvy business leader, there is something for everyone at FICO World. Below is our quick guide to help you navigate the lead…

Who says data scientists can’t let their hair down? In celebrating 10 years in Bangalore, our employees (many of them data scientists) show that they too are “happy.” The video for Pharrell William's massive hit song has more than 300 million views on YouTube and has spawned thousands of copycat videos all over the world. FICO Bangalore is no exception and, with its…

Correlation doesn’t equal causation. This point sometimes gets lost in the Big Data discussion. The argument goes that if you have enough data, correlation is good enough. Even our friend Kenneth Cukier wrote that the focus of analyzing Big Data will shift from causation to correlation. “This represents a move away from always trying to understand the deeper reasons…

The Internet of Things is expanding beyond smartphones, game consoles, wearable wellness and the ilk to include your appliances. In April, Berg, a design and technology development startup in London, debuted Cloudwash, a prototype for a connected washing machine. Unlike the complex and often over-engineered internet appliances of old, this washing machine is a refine…

Emails, text messages, documents and other unstructured human-generated data represent the next major frontier for data scientists. Being able to mine text with text analytics tools could help businesses make better predictions and power better decisions – but it is easier said than done. In this video, FICO’s Andy Flint talks about both the promise and the chal…

Hadoop is a big deal. But Hadoop’s biggest roadblocks may be its complexity and the scarcity of software engineers who are qualified to work with it. Adoption is still growing: 30 percent of enterprises have invested in Big Data technology, including Hadoop and NoSQL databases, up from 27 percent in 2012. But many deployments have stalled. In fact, only 8 percent of e…

 Data is messy and complex. By volume, 80 percent of the data out there is untapped and much of it is unstructured – too messy and just too complex to crack open. Regression models thrive on numbers and numbers only, so data in the form of customer call logs, online support chats and detailed case records are just irrelevant noise to them. And when the source in…

People describe lots of things as being “real-time.” But what does that phrase mean? If a task takes 10 seconds, is it real-time? If it takes one second, is it real-time? How about blinking your eyes—can you do that in real time? Below is an infographic that investigates what constitutes “real-time.” It compares how fast the average person blinks, a car airbag inflat…

Update: If you missed the live webcast, you can now access the recording (registration required). This Thursday, FICO’s David Ross and Forrester’s John Rymer will be hosting a live webcast about the next generation of analytics and cloud technology in the age of the customer. Rymer will discuss his research on the age of the customer, where the most successful…

The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Last week KPMG released the findings of a survey of 144 CFOs and CIOs at large enterprises. And while some of the findings show that most enterprises are far away from realizing Big Data nirvana, it also shows that many organizations are on the road to recovery. The problem: 96 percent of respondents…

The video below shows Dr. Gerald Fahner, FICO Labs blogger and senior director in FICO’s Research Division, presenting FICO's innovative approach to algorithmic learning and domain expertise at last fall's INFORMS conference. In his presentation, he describes how FICO credit scoring serves as a perfect use case for illustrating the valu…

January is the time for New Year's resolutions.  Each year, roughly one in three people resolves to better themselves in some way. But when it comes to Big Data, many CIOs aren’t sure how to take their first steps toward adoption. If you are looking to take the Big Data plunge in 2014, Andrew Jennings, FICO’s chief analytics officer, has 10 resolutions for y…