How To Create Business Value with Analytics

In the coming years big data is expected to grow exponentially.

Today big data is measured in gigabytes and sometimes petabytes. Soon big data is expected to exceed zetabytes and by the end of the century, yottabytes, according to a recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review that’s based on a survey conducted by MIT .

The study indicates that 58% of the 4,500 respondents (business executives, managers and analysts) say that their companies gain competitive value as a result of data analytics. The more competitive organizations are experienced in analytics and go far beyond its traditional baseline use. Their leaders use analytics to guide strategic and tactical decision making.

They are adept at deploying analytics tools (software for data visualization, modeling, mining, and analysis) that promote the use of data. The article suggests that organizations supporting and practicing analytics of all this data are more competitive than companies that don’t use data analytics in their day-to-day operations.

This advantage is realized by the application of business and data analytics. The study also provides this working definition: “[t]he term analytics refers to the use of data and related business insights developed through applied analytical disciplines (e.g. statistical, contextual, quantitative, predictive, cognitive and other models) to drive fact-based planning, decisions, execution, management, measurement and leaning.”

The article refers to the group that uses analytics as “transformed companies” because of the level of sophistication that their user communities display.

Transformed companies are likely to be data-oriented organizations. Each of these organizations encourages a culture of data enthusiasts that embraces data as a strategic asset. Company leaders support data initiatives and they share the insights derived from the data across the organization.

Leaders serve as analytic champions who embolden the organization to use the analysis of the data to make operations decisions daily, nurture analytical expertise and focus on using data to achieve a competitive advantage.

And the collaboration continues as well. Data silos are identified and then integrated with other specialized business data to form a single data analytical system. Executives have access to the data when they need to make top-level decisions, analysts can develop meaningful insights, and all the employees who require information to get their jobs done now have access to it.

The growth of big data and the new tools associated with it has led to the recognition that data is a strategic asset. Companies realizing the importance of data are hiring chief data officers and data scientists and they’re establishing Offices of Data Management.

As the level of data expertise and sophistication increases, organizations are more likely to be in positions to advance the use of data analytics and gain competitive advantages.

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