"It's an exciting time. I've worked in this field a long time. There's most probably more going on at the moment than any other time I've worked on business analytics. There are some interesting things going on which really bring business benefit to the organizations."
Colin White, founder of BI Research talks about the difference between business analytics of the past and business analytics of the future. He gives examples of how the 'new' analytics can be used, applications, and challenges that are coming up in analytics now.
While, in the past, business analytics were nice to have, these days, it's a necessity, and the biggest change is the use of business analytics in day-to-day decision making processes
Analytics Usage Examples
- Fraud detection
- Web display advertising (can now be changed immediately based on purchases)
- Call center optimization
- Social media and social networking analysis
- Sentiment is viewed in lieu of just data
Analytics Applications
- Intelligent traffic management
- Smart power grids
- Sustainability
- Bioinformatics.
Analytics Challenges
- Data deluge – big data
- Smarter analytics –advanced analytics (reactive and predictive)
- Faster decisions – real time analytics
- Faster Time to Value – Pressure on IT to reduce costs
He gives a historical perspective of the data deluge. More and more data is available, and systems have become universal. We've gone from processing Megabytes and Gigabytes of information to processing Petabytes.
Smarter Analytics
- Advanced statistics
- Predictive modeling and analytics
- Web event analytics
- Text and social media analytics
- Social network analysis
In summary, analytics usage is changing, and companies need to stay abreast of the changes in order to make smart, immediate decisions at a lower cost.
