Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, September/October 2014 | Page 20

INFO RMS ini t i at i ve s of analytic maturity. It helps you, your clients and your executives to: 1) Develop and execute action plans; 2) justify resource investments; and 3) target key areas within the business. You will notice that context for each of your “as-is” and “to-be” scores is enriched by the benchmark information provided according to your industry – baselines by which you can compare your business’ current and goal states against other similar businesses. This unique feature of the IAMM helps you create or maintain a competitive advantage and provides both the rationale and justification for investments. If you need assistance developing your plan and improving your organization’s use of analytics, you can follow links to INFORMS services that can help you in the areas that are most important to you. The committee has received questions about the security of data input by users. The INFORMS IT department double encrypts the data to protect users’ privacy. No proprietary data is shared. IAMM celebrated its soft launch at the INFORMS Big Data Conference in San Jose, Calif., in June. INFORMS IT Director Nagaraj Reddi and I unveiled it for the many participants who turned to INFORMS for expertise in analytics. An active team of INFORMS practitioners from respected firms has been 20 | a n a ly t i c s - m a g a z i n e . o r g developing the IAMM for two years, carefully determining the needs of users and noting the INFORMS model’s unique position vis-à-vis other models. The IAMM Committee is chaired by Norm Reitter of CANA Advisors and includes, Rob Benson (Spinaker), John Poppelaars (ORTEC), Jim Williams (FICO) and Aaron Burciaga (Accenture), with INFORMS staffing by Executive Director Melissa Moore, Communications Director Barry List and IT Director Nagaraj Reddi. Just as Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogs once met customer needs with tiered products, the INFORMS IAMM provides tailored assessments and solutions for right-sizing an analytics program. Complete your assessment today, fitting you and your business to good, better or best options for analytics maturity at https:// analyticsmaturity.informs.org/. ❙ Aaron Burciaga, CAP, is senior manager, analytics and operations research, at Accenture. Barry List, INFORMS director of communications, contributed to this article. Notes & REFERENCES 1. Reitter, Norman, and List, Barry, 2013, “Analytics Maturity Model,