The Washington Capitals have hired Tim Barnes as an analytics consultant, bringing aboard one of the stat community’s early pioneers and most legendary innovators, the team announced Saturday. Barnes ran the now-offline website timeonice.com, which compiled data for advanced statistics such as Corsi and Fenwick – both puck possession metrics – zone development and shifts.

Large companies with successful HR analytics projects featured prominently in sessions. One on how data and analytics will shape the workplace was moderated by David Gergen, an advisor to four U.S. presidents who is now a commentator for CNN. Panelist Steven Rice, executive vice president of HR at Juniper Networks, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said his daily commute through Silicon Valley reminds him of the importance of gaining a competitive edge, as once-prominent companies fade and newer ones move to the forefront.

User experiences with HR analytics were likewise varied. "We are doing it," said a business analyst at a software company who asked not to be identified. "We hear a lot of talk about advanced analytics, but it's really hard to do it internally. You need a team of data scientists." Her approach is to outsource advanced analytics applications to a consultant with 30 years of experience. "It would be almost impossible for us to tap into that kind of knowledge," she said.

The 2014 HR Technology Conference was dominated by talk of the data-driven organization and workforce analytics, with social recruiting and mobile also in strong evidence. LAS VEGAS - HR analytics was omnipresent at the 17thannual HR Technology Conference & Exposition, not just as a big idea in general sessions but in case studies, how-to sessions and newly announced products.

Perhaps the worst kept secret this year in the technology industry is that Salesforce.com will be announcing a new analytics offering as part of its DreamForce event this week (disclosure– Salesforce is covering my travel and expenses to attend DreamForce).

Commerce has gone digital and so have the fraudsters. Big data and analytics are our greatest weapon against them. We can’t eradicate fraud altogether, but there is much more we can do to fight it. The first step is to better understand and predict where fraud might occur. Data and analytics is the best — if not the only — way to do this. And your company can house the information in a cloud.

Businesses are still failing on the basic requirements for information security such as visibility of their data assets, says security firm Websense. This first-hand experience with UK organisations is supported by recent global research by the Ponemon Institute commissioned by Websense.

There's probably not a day -- if not an hour -- that goes by when you don't hear about big data: managing big data,analyzing big data. Indeed, the term has been so widely and, at times, so inappropriately applied that it has started to lose its meaning.