In the abstract, business analytics is the study of financial, economic, consumer and production data through statistical investigation. The simplest explanation of business analytics is that it attempts to find covariance and derive probable causality; the end goal is to spot trends and improve operations. Modern business analytics is multifaceted, competitive and increasingly specialized. It is more important to understand the method of business analytics than all of its potential applications.
APPLYING SCIENTIFIC METHOD TO BUSINESS DATA
"Big Data" is the name given to the contemporary movement towards gathering and mining structured and unstructured data for business purposes. Companies want data scientists to dive into Big Data and come out with new, profitable insights.
Data scientists apply data-discovery tools (such as SAS and Excel) to test theories about consumer behaviour, price trends, risk management, supply and demand, and other market trends. Think of it as predictive analytics performed through modelling and experimental design. Once a meaningful insight has been reached, the role of the business analyst is to suggest business decisions that support the larger strategy.
Big Data has given businesses a window into valuable streams of information from customer purchasing habits to inventory status.However, internal data streams give only a limited picture,especially with the growth of digital business.
Three trends describe information's ability to transform business processes over the next few years.These are as follows:
INFORMATION WILL BE USED TO REINVENT OR ELIMINATE 80% OF THE BUSINESS PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS FROM A DECADE EARLIER:
As the presence of Internet Of Things(IOT)-such as connected devices,sensors and smart machines-grows,the ability of things to generate new types of real-time information and to actively participate in an industry's value system will also grow.
Customers,employees and citizens will become engaged principally through digital means.With operational processes quickly becoming digitalized,traditional analog and manual processes will be automated,including both physical and human elements.Many decisions will be algorithmic,based on automated judgement.
MORE THAN 30% OF ENTERPRISE ACCESS TO BROADLY BASED BIG DATA WILL BE VIA INTERMEDIARY DATA BROKER SERVICES,SERVING CONTEXT TO BUSINESS DECISIONS:
Digital business demands real-time-situation-awareness.This includes insights into what goes on both inside and outside the organization.How do weather patterns impact inventory?More so,how do this season's customer preferences as expressed in social media suggest greater or lesser inventory?
The enterprise data available in organizations' vaults is increasingly insufficient to provide the kind of context awareness áble to support competitive digital business in marketing,transportation,financial,manufacturing,healthcare and other business decisions.
Enter a new category of business-centric cloud services that deliver data to be used as context in business decisions, human or automated.These information services(or data/decision brokers) will become an essential part of intelligent business operations and smart business decisions.
MORE THAN 20% OF CUSTOMER-FACING ANALYTIC DEPLOYMENT WILL PROVIDE PRODUCT TRACKING INFORMATION:
Fueled by the Nexus of Forces(mobile,social,cloud and information),customers now demand a lot more information from their vendors.The rapid dissmination of the IoT will create a new style of customer-facing analytics-product tracking-where increasingly less expensive sensors will be embedded into all types of products.
These sensors not only provide geospatial information(where the product is right now)but also performance information(how well the product is functioning).This creates an opportunity to improve transparency and strengthen customer and partner relationships.It can be a key differentiator and a key part of your business model.
THE BEST SOFTWARE TO USE FOR BUSINESS ANALYTICS:
The market for business analytics and business intelligence software is dynamic.New products and technologies are constantly pushing the edge of efficiency and task specialization.However, a few giants in the industry remain relevant and are trusted by professionals across multiple sectors.These include SAS,Oracle,IntelSoft Style Intelligence and IBM.
SAS : SAS is the world's largest privately held software company and has been a top player in business analytics field for years.It managed to escape the consolidation of existing giants,SAP,Oracle and Microsoft, and become an independent force on its own.The products offered by SAS focus on predictive planning and multiple device versatility.The company reinvests a huge portion of its earnings into R&D,thus fueling future innovations.
ORACLE : Oracle has several major software systems, such as Hyperion and Business Intelligence Eterprise.This variety and versatility cane be a positive and a negative;it is not the easiest software to implement and train.Oracle allows for excellent full-data collaboration within a larger organization.
INFOSOFT STYLE INTELLIGENCE : This software uses dashboards and visual reporting aids toward immediate practical ends.Reporting is custom fit to the organization,and the focus is on operational efficiency;how data can be transformed into useful, actionable information quickly.Complex statistical modeling might be better left to other providers.
IBM : Business analytics is a small portion of the IBM service offerings, but the company played a major play in the business intelligence space with a $12 billion acqisition of SPSS in 2009.IBM believes the primary role of business analytics is to eliminate blind spots, increase response time and create meaningful forecasts.Companies familiar with other IBM technology should feel comfortable with this analytics package.
With the rising complexity of global business,gut decisions and hunches no longer suffice.Successful responses to threats and opportunities now depend on rapid and smart execution.Let me state it plainly business analytics is the key to achieving these challenging objectives.Here's my advice: Take the time to learn about analytics.Take the time to discover how analytics can provide an objective view of your world,not only as it appears today but also how it is likely to appear tomorrow.I am not talking about gazing into a crystal ball.I am talking about the capability of competitive organizations to develop and implement strategies today that are based on a careful analysis of their likely outcomes in the future.
Here's my crystal ball view:The ability to predict future business trends with reasonable accuracy will be one of the crucial competitive advantages of this new decade.You won't be able to do that without business analytics.
