Indian outsourcing company Wipro’s $30MM minority stake in Opera Solutions is the top Big Data story in Datanami’s weekly “Big Data Big Five.”

Indian outsourcing-services company Wipro Ltd. is acquiring a $30MM minority interest in New Jersey-headquartered Big Data science firm Opera Solutions, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

In a vote conducted by Big Data Republic, Opera Solutions was 51st overall in the Top 100 most influential Big Data Twitter accounts. The company was 4th among corporate accounts, behind only SAP BusinessObjects, IBM, and TIBCO software.

British Airways knows surviving tough economic times takes better use of customer data. That’s why they’re augmenting their 1,000-strong IT department with third parties like Opera Solutions, a Big Data firm that is applying advanced science to extract predictive patterns from data and turn them into business outcomes, which they return to BA in an “as-a-service” fashion.

The cream of the crop focus on “machine learning” — the science of teaching computers themselves to extract predictive patterns from the tsunami of Big Data. These are the scientists organizations need to hire and nurture, says Opera Solutions’ R&D head Jacob Spoelstra.

In its ongoing series of market commentary, Opera Solutions’ Mobiuss research team details the specific liquidation and performance improvements achieved by the new servicers.

Of course Big Data is big. But what makes it a big deal isn’t its size. Rather, it is how much predictive value – or “Signals” – it contains, argues Opera Solutions Chief Strategy Officer Laura Teller.

Among vendors that get 100% of their revenue from Big Data products and services, Forbes reports that research by Wikibon ranks Opera Solutions #2. When Wikibon distinguishes between “technology vendors” and “Data-Science-as-a-Service” providers, Opera Solutions is the highest ranked company.

An intelligent, Signal-rich infrastructure helps machine learning–based systems support a thinly staffed front line. (Learn more about our Global Markets Solutions.)

“Bright scientists and Big Data practitioners” helped Opera Solutions become a Big Data Vendor of the Year finalist. (ESG Global)

Opera Solutions is creating a new fraud detection system for health exchanges set up under Obamacare. (International Business Times)

Executives need to gear up for the era when data-crunching computers become an extension of their own instincts, says Opera Solutions’ CEO, Arnab Gupta. (Investor's Business Daily)

Opera Solutions, headquartered in New York, had revenues of $75MM in 2011, according to Wikibon, making it one of the highest-earning “pure-play” ventures in Big Data.
(The Financial Times)

Pre-packaged apps bring Big Data science to the masses. (InformationWeek)

Opera Solutions prescribes a healthy dose of
Big Data. (eWeek)

Bringing down firewalls for better decisions.
(IT-TNA)

Obamacare's Health Exchanges need the protection of Big Data fraud solutions.
(Big Data Republic)

Machines will do more and more — but only with our help. (VentureBeat)

This is outsourcing on steroids. (CIO)

Lots of people are asking. Read some of the answers here. (CIO)

Don't replace human intelligence, supplement it. Read more. (Forbes)

Read about October's big news from
Opera Solutions and other Big Data players. (ZDNet)

Opera Solutions' Signal Hub™ technologies make it happen. (CITO Research)

Opera Solutions' Mobiuss platform finds a big surprise in the Lone Star State.
(National Mortgage News)

"They [Opera Solutions] provide very specific information to complex business questions," writes ServicesANGLE's Bert Latamore about Opera Solutions' integration with Oracle's
Big Data technology. (ServicesANGLE)

Opera Solutions' Shawn Blevins and Laura Teller explain to CMSWire's Virginia Backaitis what OS' Signal Hub Suite's integration with Oracle's
Big Data appliance and Exalytics brings to business decision-makers. (CMSWire)

"Mining useful information from large amounts of data housed in databases, documents, social media and web content has become a chief preoccupation" for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, writes CIO Journal's Chris Boulton. To accomplish that they're relying on Opera Solutions' analytics software.
(The Wall Street Journal)

Jason Busch of Spend Matters takes note of Opera Solutions' acquisition of BIQ, who, he said, is "pushing [spend analysis] capabilities far beyond." Opera Solutions, Busch continues, is "up to some fascinating things." (Spend Matters)

One reason it's so hard to find the right people, says Jacob Spoelstra, Opera Solutions' global head of research and development, in InformationWeek, is that not every data scientist understands how the collaboration between "man and machine" really works. (InformationWeek)

Mobiuss is software designed to improve the method "trading firms relied upon to price and trade assets," writes ServicesANGLE's Jeff Kelly in an interview with Opera Solutions'
Jon Di Giambattista. (ServicesANGLE)

"The hospitals we work with are looking for improved efficiencies and better quality results," says Opera Solutions' General Manager of Healthcare Solutions, Pieter Schouten. In particular, they recognize the need to take a more data-focused approach in collections. (Healthcare Finance News)

Opera Solutions' Revenue Cycle Management solution for hospitals is a new healthcare solution that's currently making billing far more accurate and preventing "financial leakage," reports ZDNet contributor Andrew Brust. (ZDNet)

Before Opera Solutions announced its alliance with SAP, "it was unclear how any but the largest companies could efficiently and affordably find their way to the hidden treasure" of actionable insight, writes Alec Foege of DataInformed. (DataInformed)

If companies want to successfully apply advanced analytics against their Big Data, they should "look at how Opera Solutions is changing the face of predictive analytics," writes Ventana Research's CEO and Chief Research Officer, Mark Smith. (Ventana Research)

Opera Solutions' Global Head of R&D Jacob Spoelstra explains why machine-learning techniques are important to OS as data grows and changes at an explosive rate: "The machine responds to changes [in data] over time. It's about using feedback to help you make predictions," adding, "It's continuously improving your performance over time." (SD Times)

ZDNet's Andrew Brust writes on the business value that Opera Solutions can create by integrating its Signal Hub™ technologies with SAP HANA®: "If you build super-accurate models and build them quickly, then your business will get better value out of your data." (ZDNet)

"SAP is rolling out the welcome mat for third parties that have something to bring to the table," writes Pedro Hernandez of Enterprise Apps Today. He adds, "SAP's in-memory hardware and Opera's Big Data expertise are practically made for each other." (Enterprise Apps Today)

Opera Solutions' "predictive analytics solutions are a logical fit for HANA as they involve the kinds of complex problems... that [SAP's] new in-memory database was designed for," says Tony Baer, Principal Analyst at Ovum Research. (OnStrategies Perspectives)

Jeff Kelly of SiliconANGLE writes "the combination of HANA and Opera's advanced data mining capabilities... will allow enterprises that lack the internal talent to deploy and manage Big Data on-premise to deliver near real-time predictive analytic capabilities to front-line workers as a service." (ServicesANGLE)

InformationWeek's Doug Henschen writes that our Signal Hub™ technologies "tap into large and varied data sets to perform predictive analyses and support decisions on areas such as marketing, spend management, and credit risk." (InformationWeek)

Wrapping up coverage from day two of SAP's SAPPHIRE NOW conference, Maria Deutscher of SiliconANGLE predicts the joint effort will "encourage the use of Opera's Signal Hub tech in combination with SAP's in-memory analytics appliance." (SiliconANGLE)

Slashdot's Nick Kolakowski says Opera Solutions' and SAP's new combination "could result in a platform more capable of analyzing large amounts of business data in real time," successfully meeting "the need for speedy and accurate analytics" as organizations adopt advanced analytic solutions. (Slashdot)

After being part of the consortium that tied for first place based on model performance in the Netflix Prize, Opera Solutions CEO Arnab Gupta put our "scientists to work creating Netflix-like algorithms for things that other businesses need," writes Business Insider's Julie Bort. It must be working, she posits, since, "today, Opera Solutions is generating $100 million in revenue."
(Business Insider)

Datanami recently described Opera Solutions as a "company that is reshaping how enterprises are considering their Big Data problems." Nicole Hemsoth writes that OS is "a jack-of-all trades when it comes to complex analytics on massive data sets." (Datanami)

In an International Business Times story, David Zielenziger names Opera Solutions as one of the smaller companies "for investors to consider now or to watch for." He writes that OS is among the smaller organizations with good track records and "the promise of more."
(International Business Times)

In a recent story discussing SAP's HANA in-memory database technology, Joshua Greenbaum of Enterprise Applications Consulting writes, "A company like Opera, which 'packages' big analytics across a variety of industries, can provide a hybrid high-value market for HANA."
(Enterprise Applications Consulting)

Opera Solutions' Jacob Spoelstra answers Information Management's Justin Kern's questions about the unique way our scientists collaborate with business stakeholders early on in the project lifecycle. (Information Management)

Spend Matters' Jason Busch writes about the customer, channel and competitive implications of Opera Solutions' acquisitions of BIQ and Lexington Analytics, expecting "market ramifications that typically result from only larger transactions." (Spend Matters)

BIQ and Lexington Analytics, two leading developers and providers of spend analytics and procurement services, are now wholly-owned subsidiaries of Opera Solutions. These acquisitions represent major steps in Opera Solutions' continuing expansion in purchasing and supply chain analytics. (Spend Matters)

Opera Solutions' rapid growth and future prospects were highlighted by Scott Denne of Dow Jones VentureWire as part of a series profiling successful Big Data companies in The Wall Street Journal. (The Wall Street Journal)

When it comes to first-party fraud, by using artificial intelligence "we can identify a large fraction" of accounts before they go bust,
Opera Solutions Global Head of Analytics Joe Milana tells UT San Diego's Mike Freeman.
(UT San Diego)

GigaOM's Derrick Harris writes about the "valuable" possibilities now that Opera Solutions has acquired Commendo, the Austria-headquartered leading provider of recommender engines — uniting each entity's deep scientific talent and advanced analytics capabilities. (GigaOM)

"The real battlefield" in Big Data isn't about pushing out tons of data but making that data useable. That's the message of Arnab Gupta at Structure: Data 2012, where he advocated the "man and machine" hybrid process. Read Erica Ogg's whole story that appeared in GigaOM here. (GigaOM)

Opera Solutions' Scientific Advisory Board member Sebastian Seung is helping map out the world's most complicated computer — the human brain. (The Wall Street Journal)

GigaOM's Derrick Harris cited the Opera Open's winning idea for its ability to leverage Big Data to provide better Video On Demand (VOD). The solution, he says, can help cable or satellite providers "significantly reduce the costs of serving content." (GigaOM)

In The Wall Street Journal, Dennis K. Berman details Opera's success in growing Schwan Food Co.'s revenues and profits by using advanced analytics to create and deliver a curriculum of individualized recommendations aimed at changing customer behavior over time.
(The Wall Street Journal)

Olivia Solon of Wired recently spoke with
Opera Solutions' Global Head of R&D, Jacob Spoelstra, about the surprising scientific techniques OS uses to solve Big Data problems. (Wired)