Business analytics
Given that our organization is large and it is growing rapidly we need a tool that will enable us to make thousands of decisions. There is a need to come up with accurate decisions because any miscalculations will cost the company. Some of the key decisions revolve around strategic, tactical and operational decisions of the organization. It is clear that information, insight and intelligence are very important in making the right decisions for the organization. There have been reports by the decision makers of the organization that they did not have enough data in making their decisions. This means that we need to provide information for organizations to make right decisions. Reports are not enough in making key decisions in our organization because of the large amount of data. This is because we need a tool that will not only give us the total sales by will drill down to sales according to region, product or the salesperson. The data collection activity is expected to increase data of the organization by 20% annually. This means that decision makers will have a lot data at their disposal but they will lack the insights that are required in making decisions. There is a gap between stored data and meaningful information for making the right decisions. Our company needs to leverage using a best tool possible and outdo the competitors. Business analytics is the tool that exists to bridge this gap. The gap of unused data and unsatisfying data that provides insights for decision making. Analytics are the tools that provide insight analysis of data stored by the organization. The analysis is very important in making key decisions.
Business analytics deals with the analysis of business data. It involves the use of complex technology to bring information in a meaningfully format and uses the super algorithms in coming up with analysis and filters of the information. The out of business analysis comprise of insight understanding of the business operations in relation to the marketplace. Other aspects of the reports are the Key Performance Indicators KIPs which helps in making decisions, insights and innovations that change the competition in the market. There are many businesses that collect data and never get meaningful information out of it. Information is often reported in an organization but the results are not well understood. This has made it impossible for many businesses to improve their performance. Our organization is turning into a smart entity that uses better tools to get the most out of the information stored. The breakthrough of technology in the recent days has resulted into smart organizations. There are tools that have provided means of managing and making sense of large amount of data that are unrelated. The organization has recognized this method of business analytics and it would like to put into practice. The key question is what the organization will benefit when it implements business analytics.
There are many benefits that organization gets in the process of implementing business analytics. The organization will be able to use complex tools in data gathering technology and analysis methods which will ensure that the organization uses all the data collected to make key decisions. The organization will be able to understand the drive of motivation and maximize its profits. The organization will also be able to know the motivation for customer engagement with the product. Business analytics enable the organization to model the business instead of tracking the business performance. Business analytics enables an organization to carry out experiments on business changes before enacting them. This means that there are high changes of succeeding and reduction of risks. The best implementation method of the business change is also determined by the tool. The organization will not just provide the managers with reports of business performance but the data and analytic tools to them at every level hence better decision making. They can be able to answer questions from different perspectives rather than base on the report only. Therefore, business analytics is a very simple concept with sophisticated technology that leverages enrich data being collected in the organization and presents best methods that enable the organization to perform and compete.
Business analytics utilizes information gathered from social media, emails, blogs videos to come up with strategies of an organization. It is also possible to collect information from the marketing activities, sales product listing and promotions. The application of business analytics is for the development of a database, customer relation management and internal applications. Business analytics are used for web analysis, customer, product, processes and services, and business systems. Business analytics is supported by other systems such as recommendation systems, data warehouses and business intelligence. Below is the process of business analytics process in an organization.
The figure above shows the process of collecting data up to the process of coming up with the insights for the organization. After data is collected in is cleansed and stored in a data warehouse where different tools are used to analyze. Online Analytical Process (OLAP) is also represented in the diagram where users have the ability to query the system using their computers to carry out analysis. The results are given to them in a matter of seconds. Reporting is also another aspect in the figure above. There are many types of reports that can be generated for business analysis. Some of the reports include; routine reports, ad hoc reports which are generated on demand among others. The reports in analytic tools also offer the organization reports in different formats. Scorecards and dashboards are other features of business analytic tools. They enable each user to manipulate data on their own and seek for critical answers. The tools also enable users to subscribe to reports that will be generated by the system. Reports can be distributed to different people on different end points. Reports can be delivered on-demand, schedule or on-event (Shanks, Sharma, Seddon, & Reynolds, 2010).
Queries can also be queried on the data that is stored in the data warehouse. There are ad hoc queries. This is types of queries that cannot be predetermined. Structured query language is also used to present information in a given manner. It is a querying language that provides users with results based on their criteria. It is used as a front end language in most databases.
Multidimensionality is another feature of business analytic tools. It is the ability to organize data in several dimensions such as product, region and by time. Multidimensional has key variables of table; dimensions, measures and time. Multidimensional analysis is presented by databases called multidimensional database which have architectures specifically for this type of analysis. Data cubes are where data is presented in two dimensions, three or any other high dimension. Each dimension stands for a measure of interest.
Cloud computing is a concept of doing computer related tasks over the internet. This means that you may not have the required hardware infrastructure locally by you can accomplish different tasks. This is also means that storage of data and other software applications can be done over the internet. Information and other devices are given accessed by the users on demand. Software as a service is one of the models of cloud computing. This means that users will not need to install analytic tools on their computers in order to use them. Cloud based business analytics is the new platform that will enable an organization to access analytic tools without the need to upgrade the current ones.
One recommendation for the cloud service provide is to incorporate social media in the cloud analysis process. There should be quick and very responsive tools for providing analysis. The company will have competitive advantage if it gains social media confidence.
Appendix
Fig. 2 Business analytics: analytics and services
Fig 3 human interface of cloud analytics
Fig. 4 Infrastructure of cloud analytics
Fig. 5 Categories of business analytics
Fig. 6 Cloud technology and business analytics
Fig. 7 clod data management
References
Shanks, G., Sharma, R., Seddon, P., & Reynolds, P. (2010). The impact of strategy and maturity on business analytics and firm performance: A review and research agenda. ACIS 2010 Proceedings.
