New Zealand Big Data Collaboration Announced

MEDIA RELEASE

3 December 2013

New Zealand Big Data Collaboration Announced

Harmonic Analytics, a local data science company, announced an agreement with NEC Corporation, a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies, to collaborate on an innovation programme - to develop Big Data solutions.

“We are bringing together data scientists from New Zealand and across NEC’s global network to develop sophisticated analytical solutions,” says CEO, Phil Shepherd. “We are pleased to be working with NEC, a globally respected technology pioneer with a track record of commitment to New Zealand innovation.”

Mr Toshiyuki Mineno, Executive Vice President, NEC Corporation, recently visited Wellington to formally launch the programme.

Demand for sophisticated analytics and data visualisation is growing. More customers are asking Harmonic, how they can best use and manage their data to make robust decisions.

Key development areas for the innovation programme include: Asset management solutions, social network analytics, predictive analytics, data mining, anomaly detection, market classification and specific NEC big data solutions.

Dr. Ryohei Fujimaki, a data scientist with NEC based in Cupertino, Silicon Valley, also kicked off a series of Big data workshops in Wellington with Harmonic data scientists and the local NEC team. Dr. Fujimaki leads a development/application team on predictive analytics at NEC.

Harmonic Analytics and NEC have successful worked together for 10 years, on the Asset Lifecycle Management Programme for Telecom New Zealand.

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About Harmonic Analytics Limited

Harmonic Analytics is a data science company. Through the treatment of data, applying analytical techniques and crystal clear visualisation, Harmonic helps clients gain insight for smart decision making. Harmonic Analytics provides custom services from advice and advanced data analysis through to R Training, decision support tools and software development. Our highly qualified and experienced team are distinguished by their deep analytical ability and technical expertise combined with hands on commercial experience. We also have over 50 collective years of experience using the statistical language R.

For more information visit: www.harmonic.co.nz

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company’s experience and global resources, NEC’s advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society.

Mr. Toshiyuki Mineno has been Executive Vice President of NEC Corporation since July 2011.

For more information visit NEC: www.NEC.com

About NEC in New Zealand

Since originally supplying technology to New Zealand in the 1960’s, NEC New Zealand is a leading solutions and service provider of IT and network, telecommunication and identity solutions. With innovation at the heart of the organisation, NEC New Zealand’s commitment to quality, reliability and value has seen it through more than 50 years of innovation in New Zealand. NEC’s state-of-the-art technologies are backed by local technical expertise and are used in various creative applications to enhance the lives of the people in New Zealand every day, from connecting callers to sorting mail items, from providing timely updates via diverse digital signage network to empowering law enforcement agencies with biometric technologies.

About Dr. Fujimaki, Data Scientist, NEC Laboratories, U.S.A.

Ryohei Fujimaki received his M.S. Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from University of Tokyo in 2006 and 2011. He has worked in NEC as researcher since 2006, and has worked in NEC Laboratories, America, Cupertino CA, since 2011. His primary research interest is data analytics, especially on the basis of machine learning. Recently, he has been leading a development/application team of predictive analytics in NEC. http://www.nec.com/en/global/rd/datamining/members/fujimaki/fujimaki.html

Harmonic and NEC plan to work together in the development of Big Data Innovation in the following areas:

1. Social Network Analytics and NEC data mining techniques

2. Asset management analytics, including energy and telecommunications sector solutions for assets such as transformers, circuit breakers, public switched telephone and next generation networks

3. Big data analytical techniques such as; anomaly detection, classification, data mining and machine learning to support Retail and Security Sectors

4. Other data intensive application developments

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Questions and Answers
1. Who is Harmonic Analytics?
Harmonic Analytics is a data science company based in New Zealand, with offices in Wellington and Auckland.
We treat and interpret data to support smart decision making. We provide custom business analytics and develop software tools for clients across industry.
We have worked with major New Zealand organisations to analyse their data and provide solutions to complex business challenges. Our highly qualified and experienced team are distinguished by their deep analytical ability and technical expertise combined with hands on commercial experience. We also have over 50 collective years of experience using the statistical language R, originally developed by scientists at the University of Auckland.
2. What is data science?
Data science is the practice of deriving valuable insights from data.
It is a term that is sometimes used interchangeably with competitive intelligence or business analytics, although it is becoming more common. Data science is a specialised area. It incorporates various disciplines including, mathematics, statistics, data engineering, pattern recognition and learning, advanced computing, visualisation, modelling, data warehousing and high performance computing with the goal of extracting meaning from data.
Good data scientists are able to apply their skills to achieve a broad spectrum of end results. Some of these include; the ability to find and interpret data sources, manage large amounts of data despite constraints, merge data sources together, ensure consistency of data sets, create visualisations to aid in understanding data, and building rich tools that enable others to work effectively.
3. What is Big Data in the context of the Big Data Innovation Programme?
Data science is emerging to meet the challenges of processing very large data sets “i.e. big data’ consisting of structured, unstructured or semi-structured data that large enterprises produce.
Definitions for ‘Big Data’ are changing. For Harmonic Analytics it really means ‘all data’. We work with small, medium or large datasets. We focus on data quality, and how data can be used to solve real business challenges.
4. Have Harmonic Analytics and NEC worked together before?
Yes. Harmonic Analytics and NEC New Zealand Ltd have collaborated for nearly 10 years, on network Asset Lifecycle Management programmes for Telecom New Zealand. Harmonic has developed analytical tools that provide Telecom with information to support lifecycle planning, predictive analytics, spares allocation, capacity planning, resiliency planning, disaster recovery planning and scenario planning. NEC provides the engineering rules and other technical assumptions that are vital to the integrity of the Harmonic analytical tools.
5. How will the Big Data Innovation programme enhance Harmonic’s business?
NEC is a globally respected technology pioneer with a presence in most countries of the world and solutions in most major industry sectors. Collaborating with NEC will bring Harmonic closer to customers with big data challenges across a variety of countries and sectors. NEC Laboratories is also pioneering the development of Big Data innovation and has a large team of data scientists, many of whom who are internationally recognised for their achievements in statistical analysis. This will create more interesting professional development opportunities for Harmonic data scientists and attract new, high calibre data scientists to our company.

6. What will the Big Data Innovation Programme focus on?

The Big Data Innovation programme is a research and development programme. We will use various analytical techniques to develop sophisticated solutions for the global market. This means, solutions that enable businesses to interpret data for more informed business decisions making.

The first step in the collaboration was a series of workshops and meetings held in Wellington and Auckland during November. Harmonic’s data science team collaborated with NEC data scientist, Dr Ryohei Fujimaki, who is based in NEC Laboratories, Silicon Valley , as well as the local NEC New Zealand team.
Harmonic and NEC plan to work together in the development of Big Data Innovation in the following areas:
• Social Network Analytics and NEC data mining techniques
• Asset management analytics, including energy and telecommunications sector solutions for assets such as transformers, circuit breakers, public switched telephone and next generation networks;
• Big data analytical techniques such as anomaly detection, classification, data mining and machine learning to support Retail and Security Sectors;
• Other data intensive application developments.

More information on specific analytical techniques will be available upon request.

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