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Predictive analytics is widely held to be the most actionable form of business intelligence. As IBM famously stated, if business can be considered a numbers game, predictive analytics is the way this game is best played and won.

Many companies in China and Hong Kong are increasingly using data mining and predictive analytics to better cater to their customers needs. This has led to the growth, in the last ten years, of enterprises specializing in these IT solutions. Among them is the award-winning SagaDigits Group.

Incorporated in 2016 in Hong Kong, the group consists of two sister organizations that work together to offer services to Asian businesses. SagaDigits Limited provides data mining, cleansing, extraction, and analytics services based on a series of methods, including natural language processing, big data, and AI technologies. Compathnion Technology Limited specializes instead in data collection, visual recognition, predictive analytics, and statistical modeling for indoor and outdoor uses.

One of the most interesting scalable solutions that SagaDigits offers its customers is Smart Box, an original, highly configurable AI solution for online and offline retail stores. When a company adopts this product for its retail business, it gets a real-time zone detection service in selected retail stores to predict the number of shoppers in those specific areas and learn their preferences based on the spatial information collected.

To successfully predict customer behavior, Smart Box employs a mixed set of indicators and information tools, including advanced visual recognition. Its sensors can detect consumers gender, emotion, and approximate age group with a high level of accuracy. Finally, based on its own behavioral models predictions and the historical records of similar customers transaction histories, Smart Box provides automatic recommendations for advertisement and product selection for display.

Smart Box is one among many of SagaDigits solutions that use predictive analytics. Another system is Smart User Pro, which uses a variety of public data and internal data to predict various marketing trends in retail and marketing for consumer goods.

Sources: Eric Seigel (2015). Seven Reasons You Need Predictive Analytics Today. Prediction Impact, Inc. https://www.ibm. com/downloads/cas/LKMPR8AJ (accessed October 2019). Saga Digits. https://sagadigits.com/about (accessed October 2019). https://sagadigits.com (accessed October 2019).

Questions for Case 1.5

1. Why is predictive analytics becoming increasingly common?

2. What is the most interesting feature of Smart Box?

3. To which kind of corporate organization is Smart Box targeted?

4. Describe alternative uses of predictive analytics that Saga Digits has developed solutions for.

5. What We Can Learn from This Application Case

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