The past couple of decades have seen an explosion in the amount of data collected by
companies, governments and society. This data is generated from a wide variety of sources
including social media, transaction records, digital pictures and videos, intelligent sensors,
surveys, telephone records and health records. This has led many to coin this as the era of
‘Big Data’. Fortunately, there has also been a dramatic increase in both processing power and
data storage to deal with this data. In order to harness the power of 'Big Data' we must utilise
data analytics. Analytics are now transforming the way in which companies, governments
and public bodies are doing business. They are bringing organisations and governments
closer to their customers and citizens, allowing them to better understand their businesses and
citizens' behaviours and plan for the future.

Unfortunately, extracting useful information can be a challenging task. Simply applying basic
methods can lead to little or no useful information regardless of data size. Hence, what is
really important is ‘Big Information’ rather than ‘Big Data’. 'Big Information' requires
utilising the most appropriate and sometimes most sophisticated data analysis techniques
currently being developed in academia. This is where the interdisciplinary nature of
Complexity Science, with its focus on mathematical modelling and statistics, has the
opportunity to revolutionise the area.

To this end, an entrepreneurial group of Complexity Science DTC students have established a
new data analysis and research consultancy. Spectra Analytics aims to delivers cutting-edge
analysis to clients, to allow them to make informed decisions about their businesses. They
bridge the gap between academia and industry. The firm is managed by Marcus Alexander
Ong and Daniel Sprague who are just completing the Complexity Science PhD programme.

Spectra Analytics works across a broad range of business sectors but it is particularly strong
in the fields of finance and healthcare. In these fields, the firm is able to leverage Marcus’
experience as a derivatives trader for Citigroup and Dan’s experience as a consultant for
USAID. The duo also recognises the importance of the ‘social contract’ and they plan to
continue conducting academic research and hope to supervise mini-projects within the Centre
for Complexity Science.

If you are interested in finding out more about Spectra Analytics you can visit their website
(www.spectraanalytics.com) and follow them on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. You may
also contact them directly via info@spectraanalytics.com or call 020 7426 2790.