A recent article in Information Week identified four key issues (they called them “technologies” but they are more than that) in commerce and industry at large (not just Libraries):

1. predictive analytics,
2. real-time monitoring,
3. in-memory processing,
4. Software as as Service (SaaS)

Predictive Analytics uses data from past events to attempt to predict future ones. This would apply to things like automated assessment of mortgage applications or insurance claims in order to assess the likelihood of default or fraud. Real-time monitoring cuts the time taken to get relevant data to a decision maker in time to intervene whilst events are unfolding. A speedometer in a car is a very simple example. A more complex example: the doctor in charge of an Accident-and-Emergency unit might have a  display which alerts him/her to patients who are at risk of breaching the four-hour waiting-time target.

I cannot think of situations in libraries where either of these would be cost effective: it would of course be nice to be able to predict (say) next year’s loans or active borrower count, but the usefulness and statistical validity of such predictions would be questionable.

What is your view on this? Do you think that these capabilities have a place in the library world? Can you imagine likely scenarios or examples? Please use the comment facility to add your ideas.

The second two (in-memory processing and Software as as Service) are more promising. We looked at the Software as a Service model last year as an adjunct to Talis Decisions. It didn’t seem wholly cost-effective at that time, but it is an area that we are keeping under review. We are in the early stages of evaluating a possible in-memory extension to Talis Decisions. This might allow a more interactive style of “what-if” reporting.

Again, please do let us know what you think. Do you see a place for either of these in practice in the library world? If they were in place, what kind of things would you do differently?