ColdLight Solutions, a Philadelphia-based information technology firm, has developed Neuron, new software that processes huge amounts of data while spotting patterns that can be turned into action. Fox School of Business professor Paul Pavlou says there are a growing number of companies that specialize in different parts of the big data process. "Many companies are interested [in big data], some of them just because they have done some small projects [involving big data] and they saw some business value created," he said.