The workshop may be attended by Senior Level Executives and Project Managers with technical IT knowledge, concrete understanding of the corporate business strategies, who play a major role in modifying and implementing their business strategies to satisfy corporate needs and who have a strong collaboration with their top level managers.

1. 2-Day Workshop on
Big Data Analysis: From Data to Decision
November 19-20, 2013, Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi
Concept Paper
Background:
The term “Big Data” has received much hype recently in the corporate sector across the globe –
be it financial, banking, telecommunications, software development, or even healthcare. It refers
to data which has a high velocity, high variety and a high volume. For instance, millions of
banking transactions could be generated daily in a bank (velocity), categorized into different
types, e.g., credit, loan, ATM, mortgage etc. (variety), and requiring terabytes of storage for a
given financial period (volume).
The primary asset for any corporation is its data, which is analyzed on a regular basis to achieve
business objectives, e.g., derive profit, formulate or modify business strategies, maintain
customer relationships etc. However, the presence of Big Data has now started to create serious
analytical problems. For instance, many database queries now execute in minutes (rather than
milliseconds) which creates frustration and delays the decision-making process. Moreover,
corporate data centers are accumulating big data but not analyzing it at the same rate –
consequently, a majority of data remains unanalyzed and the management resorts to their own
experience, competitor performance and also sometimes “gut feeling”, to drive their business
ventures.
The solution is to adopt Big Data Analysis (BDA): a set of techniques to analyze Big Data which
outputs information that is non-trivial, previously unknown, implicit (hidden in the data), and has
a concrete practical value. In short, BDA extracts “gold nuggets” from your Big Data which can
have a strong and positive financial impact across all corporate dimensions.
Workshop Objective:
This workshop brings Big Data Analysis (BDA) into focus for the first time in Pakistan, and is
targeted specifically for the corporate sector. Big Data problems have started to engulf

2. particularly in the banking, telecommunication and FMCG sectors in Pakistan. This workshop
provides a concrete platform for addressing these problems efficiently and effectively. Our goal
is to enlighten the audience on the need of BDA and the process of incorporating it within their
corporate workflows.
The workshop consists of a hands-on session to demonstrate the different BDA techniques and
the types of outputs they generate, to make the audience realize the worth of BDA. This will be
followed by demos of some proprietary BDA software solutions.
Target Audience:
This workshop specifically targets senior-level business managers and project managers, who
have:
 Technical IT knowledge,
 A concrete understanding of their corporate business strategies,
 A major role in modifying and implementing their business strategies to satisfy the
corporate needs, and
 A strong collaboration with their C-level/top-level managers.
What Will You Learn?
By attending this workshop, you will learn:
The primary BDA techniques being used in the global corporate sector
Selecting a BDA Technique – Which technique(s) is suitable for my corporation and
when?
Applying a BDA Technique – Structuring and pre-processing the data, selection of
relevant BDA tools, and generating output
Extracting Corporate Value from BDA Outputs – Analyzing BDA outputs to locate the
gold nuggets for your corporation
Mapping BDA Value to your Business Objectives – How and when should I use the
extracted valuable information for maximizing my profits?
The Proprietary and Open-source BDA tools being used in the global corporate sector
Selecting the relevant BDA tool for your corporation

3. Workshop Plan:
The two-day event will be conducted as follows:
DAY 1 Session I Introduction to Big Data Analytics –
Marketing and Technical Perspective
Session II Technical Hands-On Session on Corporate
Big Data Analysis Techniques
Session III Big Data Analysis Visualizations from a
Marketing Perspective
DAY 2 Session IV Vendor Demos of Big Data Analysis
Proprietary Software
Day 1:
Session I: This session will provide an introduction to the basic concept, techniques and trends of
Big Data Analysis (BDA). From a marketing perspective, the talk will demonstrate the valuable
outputs that can be acquired through BDA which can particularly assist the FMCG and Banking
corporate sectors to achieve remarkable profits. From the technical perspective, the talk will
demonstrate the core BDA techniques at an abstract level, the type of outputs they generate, and
the proprietary and open-source BDA software tools available in the market.
Session II: This is a technical session particularly targeted for corporate IT and Business
Managers. It will provide hands-on experience of core BDA techniques – participants will
acquire in-depth knowledge and an understanding of how corporate value can be derived through
each technique. The session will be conducted using the well-known open-source BDA tool
called Rapid Miner.
Session III: This is a marketing-oriented session particularly targeted for Marketing and
Commercial Managers. It will demonstrate visualizations (outputs) of different BDA techniques.
Managers will understand how these outputs can help modify current business strategies to
achieve business goals, e.g., increase ROI, enhance customer relationship management, increase
banking cash flow and product sales etc.

4. Day 2:
Session IV: This session is targeted for both technical and marketing participants. It will present
a demo of proprietary BDA software solutions that have widespread use in corporate sector
across the world. Famous BDA organizations will demonstrate their tools, different BDA
techniques they offer, and the value that can be acquired through each technique. The session
will assist participants in selecting the best BDA tool for their corporation.
About the Facilitator:
Dr. Tariq Mahmood is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science
at the Karachi Institute of Economics & Technology (PAF-KIET), Karachi, Pakistan. He has a
PhD in the applications of Business Intelligence and Machine Learning to E-Commerce from the
University of Trento (Italy), and a Masters degree in Statistical and Symbolic Machine Learning
from the prestigious Paris 6 university and LIP 6 research laboratory (Paris, France). His current
research interests include Big Data Analysis, Predictive Analytics, Data Mining, Data
Warehousing, and Business Intelligence. He has successfully completed more than 50 academic
projects and 20 corporate projects on these topics, particularly with applications in the domain of
financial transactions, banking, healthcare, telecommunications, ERPs, software product line
management, and sports analytics. He has won government funding for two PhD-level projects
regarding the applications of Big Data Analysis in Pakistan’s Healthcare processes.
Dr. Mahmood has 4 years experience of corporate-level consultancy in Pakistan in the domains
of Big Data Analysis, Predictive Analytics, and Business Intelligence. He has conducted
professional training on these topics in several high-level government organizations and also at
Tradekey® (a well-known E-Commerce B2B portal). He has also served as a Business
Intelligence consultant at VectraCom (a well-known mobile service provider with branches in
Middle-East) for two years, wherein he implemented a complete data warehousing solution with
adhoc dashboard analytics, and several Predictive Analytics techniques related to forecasting
customer usage of various mobile services. Dr. Mahmood was an invited speaker at the first CIO
summit in Pakistan, and is currently a professional trainer and workshop coordinator with
Solutions-Inc, who organized this summit.
Dr. Mahmood’s current effort is also aligned towards the development of a robust Big Data
Analysis framework, within which a corporation will be able to select and configure the relevant
distributed computing paradigm (Sqoop, HBase, Hive etc.), select the relevant Data mining/Data
warehousing/Analytics technique and to derive useful value from it – all activities streamlined to
deliver results both effectively and efficiently.

5. About the Organizers:
The workshop is being organized by Solutions Inc (www.solutions-inc.info), the organizers of
the 1st
Pakistan CIO Summit and Expo 2013 on May 21-22, 2013 at DHA Golf and Country
Club, Karachi. For more information about the summit, please visit
www.pakistanciosummit.com
Contacts
Workshop Coordinator: Rashid Jamal (Phone: 021-34375792-95, mobile: 0333-3005411, email:
rashid.jamal@solutions-inc.info)