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Analytics have been around for a long time, bnut until recently, they have been a solution in search of a problem that was worthy of them. Now, thanks to big data, we have suitable problems.

Boy, do we have suitable problems!

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Vendors are rising to the challenge. All sorts of interesting applications have emerged to help with everything from fighting disease to understanding social media (SAS Institute is even working on software that determines whether Twitter users are telling the truth!).

And businesses are taking advantage of them; a 2013 Accenture study found that 33 percent of companies use analytics for predictive purposes, up from 12 percent in 2009.

Here’s a quick peek at seven organizations where analytics have already made a difference.

1. You wouldn’t think a provincial park network would need analytics, but Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation knows better. It uses SAS Text Miner analytics to tease insights from its customer surveys. Roy Finzel, manager of business integration and analysis, Alberta Parks Division, said that not only have some unexpected relationships emerged from the data, they have been found in time to make changes mid-season, rather than having to wait until the end of the season as they did when manual analysis was the norm. And the results from the analytics also assist park managers in prioritizing their capital spending.