FEATURE : BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Stephen Gill , Academic Head , School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences , Heriot-Watt University Dubai , said business analytics is the process of applying Big Data , statistical analysis and data visualisation to extract meaningful insights needed to make informed business decisions . “ Business analytics is an indispensable tool in today ’ s highly competitive marketplace . Companies across most industries are spawning vast amounts of data which , in turn , has spurred the need for people who know how to interpret and analyse that data ,” he said .
Ghaith Ghazi , Regional Vice President – Mediterranean , Middle East and Africa , Tableau Software , said Middle East companies that increasingly rely on data analytics can make better decisions and often see a positive change in culture too . Ghazi said a data culture interacts with changes in corporate culture and processes . “ This means a profound change in mentality and in practice , makes data-driven decision-making the standard and ideal at all levels of a company . Such a transformation does not happen overnight , but in the long term it benefits the entire company , especially during periods of change ,” he said .
Determining the specific criteria for success and failure , validating models using the chosen criteria for success and failure and designing a methodology , narrowing down data , and identifying the internal and external factors needed for making a precise projection ,” he said .
Ghaith Ghazi , Regional Vice President – Mediterranean , Middle East and Africa , Tableau Software
Nauman Qureshi , VP , Product at STARZPLAY , said business Analytics is not anything new to the Middle East as companies in the region have long been using technologies which enable businesses to analyse their performance .
Types of analytics
Given the many types of business analytics in the market today , how should CIOs pick the type that suits their business environment ?
Qureshi said the difference largely has been with the shift towards using cloud platforms such as AWS , Google Cloud Platform or Azure . “ The ability to collect data from multiple sources and push in a central cloud data warehouse has introduced a robust set of new possibilities . A lot of companies in the region are still using older business analytics tools which restrict real time analysis of Internet services ,” he said . “ The newer , Internet age , companies in the region are natively setup with these cloud technologies and equipped with flexibility of utilising the latest and greatest functionalities offered by the global cloud providers . This pattern is not just limited to the Middle East but globally we see companies that are yet to move over their data warehouses into the cloud are limiting themselves .”
According to Gill , deploying the right business analytics strategy is not something that you can achieve overnight . “ However , there are specific best practices that can help ensure that organisations are successful with their business analytics implementation as much as possible . These best practices include : establishing the business use case and the goal before implementing business analytics .
Gill said the three primary types of analytics – descriptive analytics , predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics – are interconnected solutions that help companies leverage data . “ Each type of business analytics provides a different kind of insight and choosing what to employ depends on the business situation at hand ,” he said . “ Descriptive analytics is the interpretation of historical data to discover trends and patterns while predictive analytics is the usage of statistics to predict future outcomes . Prescriptive analytics on the other hand is the application of testing and other techniques to establish what outcome will produce the best result in a particular scenario .”
Gill explained that CIOs need to choose the type of business analytics based on the stage of the workflow and the requirement of data analysis . “ While the different kinds of analytics are usually implemented in stages , no one type of analytics is better than the other ,” he said .
Rakesh Jayaprakash , Product Manager , ManageEngine , said business analytics can be broadly split into descriptive , diagnostic , predictive and prescriptive analytics . “ Descriptive analytics
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