ANALY TIC S AC ROS S T H E E N T ERP RISE
the same metrics, as well as comparisons
to the previous week and comparisons
to the same week in the previous calendar year. Many reporting systems also
allow for expanding the summarized data
into its component parts. This is particularly useful in understanding changes in
the sums.
For example, a regional store manager might want to examine the storelevel detail that resulted in an increase
in revenue from the home entertainment
department. She would be interested in
knowing whether sales increased at most
of the stores in the region, or whether the
increase in total sales resulted from a significant sales jump in just a few stores.
She might also look at whether the increase could be traced back to just a
few SKUs, such as an unusually popular
movie or video game. If a likely cause of
the sales increase can be identified, she
might alert the store managers to monitor inventory of the popular products, reposition the products within a store, or
even reallocate inventory of the products
across stores in her region. …
to process the amounts of data that are
today being generated through social media, sensors, and more. While gut instinct
is often the basis for decisions, analytically informed intuition is what wins going
forward.
Several studies have highlighted the
value of analytics. Companies that use
predictive analytics are outperforming
those that do not by a factor of five. In
a 2012 joint survey by the IBM Institute
of Business Value and the Said Business School at the University of Oxford of
more than 1,000 professionals around the
world, 63 percent of respondents reported
that the use of information (including big
data and analytics) is creating a competitive advantage for their organizations. IBM
depends on analytics to meet its business
objectives and provide shareholder value.
The bottom line is that analytics helps the
bottom line. Your competition will not be
waiting to take advantage of the new insights from big data. Should you?
IBM has approached the use of analytics with a spirit of innovation and a belief that analytics will illuminate insights
in data that can help improve outcomes.
WHY ANALYTICS MATTER
The company hasn’t been afraid to make
Quite simply, analytics matters be- mistakes or redesign programs that
cause it works. You can be overwhelmed haven’t worked as planned. Unlike trawith data and the value of it may be unat- ditional IT projects, most analytics projtainable until you apply analytics to create ects are exploratory. For example, the
the insights. Human brains were not built Development Expense Baseline Project
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