Business Analytics – Facilitating Fact-based Decision Making

By Author: Srinivas Kotikalapudi
Total Articles: 2
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Analysis of past performance is the soul of the future plans of a business. A robust business analytics solution will analyze the gathered information threadbare, providing senior executives useful insight and facilitate fact-based decision-making. Business analytics provides avenues of opportunity such as product analysis, up-selling opportunities and simplified inventory management.

Business analytics is the reference to technologies, applications, skills and practices for the analysis of past business performance to gain useful insight into the past performance, trends and strategize for the future. BA is much more than simple data. It is rather an amalgamation of tools to extract business intelligence from raw data that is required in decision making.

Business analytics focuses on creating novel insights into the data. Past business performance is investigated using statistical methods, quantitative analysis and explanatory modeling. This facilitates fact-based decision making. Advanced business analytics provides for querying, reporting and alerts.

A comprehensive business analytics system would provide ...
... answers to questions like ‘what if the trends continue’, ‘why did it happen, ‘what is the optimal outcome’, etc. Business analysis has today become imperative for strategy making. Recent studies indicate that more than 90% businesses make use of business analytics in some manner and those that do not are set to lose ground.

A common characteristic in business verticals is a top-down embrace of analytics by senior executives. Thanks to the availability of software with user-friendly interface, they can access data that could previously be dealt with only with IT guys. Mobile enterprise executive analytics applications are available now, allowing senior managers to access data on the go. Access to such BA on mobile devices and tablets allows for better and faster decision making while in the field.

Business analytics provides novel avenues of opportunity – product analysis, up-selling opportunities, simplified inventory management, etc. Companies can use product analysis to study the trends associated with specific locations doing the required alterations in the products. Up-selling helps in identification of the most prominent needs of the customers. Simplified inventory management helps find the products that are on the verge of becoming outdated, so that these can be phased out.

Start-ups lack data of their own, so they need to purchase access to market research available. They may also purchase relevant data from third parties. However, such data is prone to inaccuracies. A business needs to collect its own data over time and rely on it for making business decisions.

A business analytics program is not about processes and technologies. Rather it is about finance, R&D, operation, marketing, sales and customer support. It is about turning information into knowledge and knowledge into plans.

Access to robust business analytics enhances the ability of managers to reason, plan, predict, resolve and innovate. They are better placed to look into the challenges and take effective actions to attain business objectives.

Conventional data feeding and reporting culminates at the data-to-information stage. Business analytics extends the process through the knowledge stage analyzing the gathered information, which in turn supports decision and action. A system of business analytics measures the results produced and provides a feedback loop to facilitate learning in an organization.

It is important that business analytics provide cause-and-effect insight to the executives. Software that simply confirms status quo won’t make a difference. It should supply the executives with actionable information. Now, it is for them to align the understanding derived with business functions and streamline operations and future plans. Feedback that business analytics provides must support them in taking confident actions.

Author of this article is associated with SurfBi that provides solutions like executive analytics, sales analytics and procurement analytics along with apps such as Customer 360.