{"id":12240,"date":"2012-02-10T14:04:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2021-08-18T17:48:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T15:48:55","slug":"2012-the-year-analytics-means-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/2012-the-year-analytics-means-business.html","title":{"rendered":"2012: The Year Analytics Means Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

The real trend this year is not the technology. It\u2019s about helping business people make better decisions<\/strong>, and actually change<\/strong> the way companies do business. Analytics has always been about transforming business, but the recent huge changes in analytic technology have created interesting new opportunities for business innovation.<\/p>\n

Most organizations are now starting to understand the technical opportunities, but many struggle to apply those new opportunities to their business processes. This blog post attempts to explain what\u2019s going on in the analytics market and give concrete examples of how other companies have implemented the new technologies in \u201cgame-changing\u201d ways (sorry kittens<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Wrenching Change and A Foggy Outlook<\/h3>\n

The chart below illustrates the wrenching effects of recent financial problems on the world gross domestic product: companies today have to be ready to react to unprecedentedly fast changes to their economic environment.<\/p>\n

\"fast-wrenching-change\"<\/p>\n

And the economic environment is fraught with extreme uncertainty. This year, the people who run the world will change<\/a>, and so will many of the policies of the countries they manage. Financial markets have still not completely stabilized, notably with the future of the Euro still not assured<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Companies have reacted to this uncertainty by slashing costs and accumulating cash, and now need to start investing that cash into future development. Since interest rates are low and the business outlook is still uncertain, many of them are using the money for new technology that can help them prepare for the future.<\/p>\n

In particular, companies want better visibility about what\u2019s going on in their market, and increased organizational agility in order to be able to deal with change fast. It\u2019s like driving in the fog without a map \u2013 in order to survive, you should invest in better visibility, brakes, and steering to be able to spot and avoid fast-moving objects looming out of the fog.<\/p>\n

Analytics provides these capabilities: business intelligence to peer into the road ahead, risk-management to provide fast alerts to new obstacles, and flexible financial planning systems to help swerve around them.<\/p>\n

Analytics: Hotter Than Ever<\/h3>\n

Companies are investing heavily in analytics:<\/p>\n