What’s Hot in Advanced Analytics for 2012?

If there’s an article that gets read by women (and men) in consumer media, it’s the celebrity news and fashion trends columns.

If there’s an article that gets read by women (and men) in consumer media, it’s the celebrity news and fashion trends columns. As we saw in our 2011 top posts recap, the same applies to our Spotfire blog readers – at least in the trends department. So, for today’s post we have the top trends in advanced analytics to share, the je ne sais quoi we all need to discover in order for advanced analytics to work in our organizations and how “Moneyball” may define the sexiest data geek job of all time.

Here’s what’s hot in advanced analytics for 2012.

Advanced Analytics is All the Rage

According to the “2012 Business Intelligence, Analytics and Information Management Survey” from InformationWeek Reports, we learned that “interest in analytics in general and advanced statistical and predictive analytics in particular rose for the third year in a row.”

A few insights from the report:

• 58% of those surveyed are “very interested” in advanced analytics
• Advanced analytics is the No. 1 leading-edge technology
• Cloud analytics systems are hot because they are easier on the pocketbook; yet 63% of users have privacy concerns
• Data pros just can’t get good data – data quality still ranks as the top barrier to adopting BI products throughout the company
• 25% of those surveyed are mobilizing their data analytics with dashboards and data visualizations
• 40% of data pros are struggling to stay above the big data wave

Want more trends on advanced analytics? Follow the report’s editor Doug Henschen (@dhenschen) for more on this topic.

The “What” is Unique to Advanced Analytics

James Taylor (@jamet123), CEO of Decision Management Solutions and an expert on advanced analytics, recently wrote in an Information Management column that “advanced analytics are valuable for one reason and one reason only – because they allow you to improve the quality of decision making in your organization.” He says that advanced analytics help you improve decision making best at the operational level – especially when you’re making “decisions about a single question or transaction.”

But the hurdle is that most organizations can’t pinpoint “what these decisions are.” It’s that same old story of untold territory –  businesses have never been there and done that so they don’t have a starting point. Yet, Taylor writes “to be successful with predictive analytics the gathering of requirements in terms of these decisions is critical.” Read more on how to do this in your organization.

Advanced Analytics Takes Madison Avenue

According to Dave Morgan’s column at AdAge.com, “Moneyball” resonated with more than just data geeks. The men and women of Madison Avenue are finding the value of analytics to help them answer the age-old advertising problem – Who are we reaching with the $70 billion we spend on TV ads each year in the US?

CEO and founder of New York-based Simulmedia Morgan (@davemorgannyc) predicts that analytics will give us a better understanding of where the frequency is wasted, where to find new audiences and metrics similar to those we experience in Web-based advertising.

Could this be the sexiest data geek job of all time? Morgan’s picture of the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce partner as “a digital-savvy math-driven quant” is more data scientist in stilettos than the three-piece-suited Don Draper we’re used to seeing on “Mad Men.” The said “quant” will rely on “Wall Street-like data analysis to spot low-hanging fruit in the gut-driven world of buying and selling spots and will change the rules of the TV ad game.”

Next steps: Join us for a webinar with Forrester Senior Analyst James Kobielus (@jameskobielus) and Spotfire Product Marketing Manager Syed Mahmood, this morning at 11 a.m. EST as we explore how leading-edge organizations everywhere are integrating advanced analytics into multichannel CRM to drive marketing campaigns, prospect for new customers, retain and grow customer relationships, create consistent cross-channel experiences and achieve operational efficiencies.

Amanda Brandon
Spotfire Blogging Team