Indra is developing new technologies for massive Internet data analysis to facilitate strategic decision making

Indra, the leading Spanish multinational consulting and technology firm and one of the main players in Europe and Latin America, is leading the CELTIC project, which has the objective of developing new technologies for massive Internet data analysis that allow businesses to make strategic decisions almost in real time, using the knowledge of the scientific/technological environment and the possible current and future financial impact.

The CELTIC (Spanish acronym for Strategic Knowledge Led by Technologies for Competitive Intelligence) project is funded by the CDTI as part of the FEDER-INTERCONECTA programme for Galicia. It is led by Indra through its network of Software Labs, and it includes the involvement of the 4e-Commerce Elogia agency specialised in marketing, the Galician companies imaxin|software and Saec Data, the University of Santiago de Compostela, and the Galicia Telecommunications Technological Centre (Gradiant).

The project plans to develop new technologies that will provide relevant information for decision making using large amounts of public and heterogeneous information and data available on the Internet in web pages, news media and databases (patents, technical articles), as well as blogs, microblogging, social networks, etc.

Through the use of Bigdata technologies that enable processing and managing large amounts of data that surpass the capacity of standard software within a reasonable time, the project expects to develop a comprehensive and scalable solution in the area of business intelligence. This solution will cover obtaining public information online, efficiently storing records in distributed databases, analysing information in order to extract the necessary knowledge through the use of tools from the Hadoop ecosystem (HBase, PIG and GORA), and presenting it using advanced visualisation and interaction technologies.

Technological surveillance and competitive intelligence

These technologies are primarily applied to technological (technological surveillance) and market (competitive intelligence) aspects that allow organisations to quickly make decisions in highly dynamic environments. In terms of technological surveillance, the solution will help address matters such as what are the main lines of research, what emerging technologies are appearing, what is the competition doing, what research centres, teams or people are leaders, etc. In terms of competitive intelligence, the aim is to obtain, analyse, interpret and distribute strategically valuable information about the industry and competitors in order to detect opportunities and threats.

Aside from coordinating the project, Indra will be responsible for analysing the latest innovations in aggregating and analysing information, and it will participate in the activities of extracting information and analysing opinions, as well as in visualisation and interaction technologies. Among other solutions, the company will design and develop mechanisms for capturing unstructured information, an opinion analysis system for differentiating expert opinions, self-learning models based on user feedback, and an expert system of automatic intelligent recommendations to facilitate decision making.

What is referred to as Bigdata, or the exponential increase of data that is increasingly diverse and heterogeneous, is a reality and a challenge for the technological and business management of companies. Only 20% of the data available is currently obtained from structured information that is obtained in a traditional manner, while the remaining 80% originates from social networks, blogs, etc. Extremely valuable information can be obtained from these sources regarding topics such as what customers or citizens want, etc. Therefore, analysing this type of information is becoming increasingly necessary in order for a business to be competitive.

Indra

Indra is the leading consultancy technology multinational in Spain and a leader in Europe and Latin America. Innovation is the cornerstone of its business and sustainability, having allocated €550 million to R&D&i in the last three years, making it one of the leading companies in Europe in its sector in terms of investment. With sales approaching €3,000 million, nearly 60% of its income is from the international market. The company employs 42,000 professionals and has customers in 128 countries.