This week I ran across an analytics piece that talks about how Big Data and analysis can do more than help marketing, it can also create hard dollars for your company. Companies are using sensors and technology for mundane tasks, but tasks that can save the company substantial, hard dollars.

You may have heard of UPS and FedEx optimizing their routes, and tracking the actions of drivers. Those companies (and others) have learned that a little programming work to analyze and create instructions for their workers can reduce wasted time and fuel, which ultimately means less wasted money. Other companies have reduced their heating or cooling costs with more data and small investments.

I don't know how many additional cost reductions can take place in most companies, but there are likely changes none of us have thought of that could be easily implemented with technology. It seems like a no-brainer that technology can build better routes, but early on, it wasn't considered as an option because it didn't replace a formal manual process. It wasn't worth paying someone to design routes each day for a truck.

As computer power increases, and more data becomes available, I predict that we'll find many ways to analyze that data and change the way we run businesses. Many of the ideas will be unexpected, and some may be counter-intuitive, but those of us working with data will have a front-row seat to the ways in which data analysis can transform our world.