Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, January/February 2014 | Page 34

ANALY TIC S I N T H E C LO U D experience were likely to rate the value of each scenario more highly. Exposure to predictive analytics in the cloud breeds enthusiasm – those who buy into the promise of predictive Figure 4: Decision management transforms results. analytics and get started like the results and want to do more. Therefore, organizations that get started quickly with predictive analytics in the cloud have the opportunity to create differentiation from slower-moving Figure 5: Decision management on the rise. competitors. One last result deserves a special call out. Recent years While a similar result was found in have seen increased interest in decision 2011, the percentage reporting the use of management or prescriptive analytics— this approach has risen significantly since the embedding of predictive analytics 2011 as shown in Figure 5. Decision maninto operational decision-making sys- agement (i.e., prescriptive analytics, with tems. The importance and value of this its systematic embedding of predictions trend was shown clearly in the survey into automated decision-making systems) results. More than 95 percent of survey is an effective approach to maximize respondents who adopted this approach the transformative power of predictive (tightly integrating predictive analytics analytics. into operations) reported transformative James Taylor (james@decisionmanagementsolutions. or significant impact. Putting predictive com) is CEO of Decision Management Solutions analytics to work in operations is strong(http://www.decisionmanagementsolutions.com/). This article summarizes the key results of the study. ly correlated with the most impressive For a full report, as well as a recording of a webinar results as shown in Figure 4. summary, click here. He is a member of INFORMS. 34 | A N A LY T I C S - M A G A Z I N E . O R G W W W. I N F O R M S . O R G