Game-Changing Business Analytics Trends

E-Book
Game-changing business analytics trends for 2011 and beyond

Business analytics technologies and techniques are constantly evolving, as organizations look for novel ways to gain a competitive advantage from their data and business intelligence vendors develop new tools to help in those efforts. This eBook looks at new and emerging business analytics trends and technologies that have the potential to make winners out of the companies that adopt them and relegate those that dont to the competitive sidelines.
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Game-changing business analytics trends for 2011 and beyond

Table of Contents
Business analytics trends yield tools with potential if youre ready Deploying data analytics tools requires focus on more than technology Are packaged business analytics tools right for your organization? Data visualization, social media analytics could be keys to pervasive BI Resources from Actian Corporation
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Business analytics trends yield tools with potential if youre ready

By Todd Morrison, News and Feature Editor Advanced business analytics technologies such as in-memory analytics, in-database analytics and complex event processing (CEP) tools enable organizations to analyze increasingly massive amounts of data from a diverse number of sources, faster and more efficiently than ever before. But does that mean you should spend the required time and resources to implement them? The technologies are mature enough to consider for enterprise adoption, according to industry analysts. The biggest question may be whether your organization is ready for them. In fact, the first thing that any business needs to consider when thinking about buying advanced analytics software is whether its sufficiently prepared to deploy and use tools that are more complex than mainstream business intelligence (BI) products are, said Forrester Research Inc. analyst Boris Evelson. The first advice is really, Are you ready? You need to learn to walk before you can learn how to fly, Evelson said. There a lot of things that have to be done and done correctly just to support basic BI and analytics technologies, he noted. Data governance policies and processes need to be put in place. Basic data management issues also have to be taken care of for example, BI data must be cleansed and properly integrated to ensure that key corporate information is both accurate and accessible. Only when those steps have been taken should an organization look at aligning itself with the latest business analytics trends, technologies and techniques, Evelson cautioned. Otherwise, he said, its like the proverb: garbage in, garbage out.
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But Evelson and other analysts said theres no reason to avoid emerging analytics technologies once youre in a position to succeed with them. Until recently, that might not have been the case. For example, in-memory analytics, in which queries and calculations are run against data stored in a computers memory instead of requiring information to be pulled from disk drives, has been around for years but it was limited by 32-bit architectures and high memory costs. Now, thanks to 64-bit architectures and reductions in memory prices, the technology finally appears to be hitting its stride. As a result, all of the major BI vendors are committed to providing some kind of in-memory analytics capabilities, if they dont already, according to Rick Sherman, founder of Stow, Mass.-based consulting firm Athena IT Solutions. Its a proven technology, he said. Business analytics trends at work: more user-friendly tools, faster performance The increasing allure of in-memory analytics is being aided and abetted by several factors, industry watchers said. For one thing, many business users have grown frustrated with having to go to the IT department every time they need to create a report. At the same time, organizations are looking for tools that are more flexible and more intuitive to use, as part of so-called pervasive BI efforts aimed at broadening the adoption of BI and analytics software within companies. Were seeing a trend toward technologies that are easier to use for people who arent necessarily very technical or capable of writing their own reports but still want to do their own analysis, said Rita Sallam, an analyst at Gartner Inc. The biggest reason in-memory analytics has taken off, she added, is that vendors have combined the technology with user interface tools that are highly interactive and simple to grasp. Also working to the benefit of in-memory analytics are growing demands from business users for faster data analysis performance, Sallam said. Sherman agreed, saying that the amount of time it takes to do more complex analytics is a constant source of frustration for end users. Looking at data through the lens of various metrics is where analytics gets slowed down considerably, he said, while pointing to inmemory analytics as a potential way to reduce processing times.
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However, giving business users more analytical flexibility and freedom via in-memory analytics also carries with it some risks, Evelson warned. Its a double-edged sword, he said. On one hand, its great to empower your end users, and it frees up the IT department. On the other hand, you start losing control. So, all of a sudden, end users that maybe dont have the proper training start creating their own reports. How do you know theyre creating the right calculations? End-user training programs at organizations that are deploying in-memory analytics tools should include sections designed to give workers a good understanding of corporate data and data models, so they wont go astray in using the information and produce faulty findings, Evelson said. Setting the stage for scaling up advanced business analytics In-database analytics, in which analytical processing is done directly within a data warehouse, is also being supported by more vendors and seeing broader enterprise adoption. Forrester analyst James Kobielus said in-database analytics tools have the potential to help organizations scale up their data mining activities and other advanced analytics efforts. For example, as data mining models become increasingly complex, analytic applications have to pull together more data, on a more continuous basis, and from a greater number of data sources than in the past, according to Kobielus. You need some heavy-hitting horsepower to do that in an efficient way, he said, adding that in-database analytics can help speed up the process. CEP software, which is designed to enable organizations to monitor and react to business events in near real time, is another example of how business analytics trends are evolving. While CEP technology typically is used to look for patterns and trends in large amounts of financial or supply-chain data, Kobielus said new uses are emerging for example,
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monitoring Twitter and other social media networks for mentions of a company or a product. Kobielus described CEP, in-database analytics and in-memory analytics as hot technologies that have the ability to provide significant benefits to companies ready to handle them. This is not bleeding edge, he said. This is really happening.
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Deploying data analytics tools requires focus on more than technology

By Todd Morrison, News and Features Editor Technical issues are only part of the equation when it comes to deploying advanced business and data analytics software, according to industry analysts. Quite often, whether an analytics project succeeds or fails depends on human factors for example, whether an organizations IT department collaborates sufficiently with the business users who will be relying on the data analytics tools, and whether those users feel comfortable with the software once its up and running. You cant deploy these technologies without considering people and process issues, said Gartner Inc. analyst Rita Sallam. In fact, meeting the needs of users is more important than the particular features and capabilities of whatever analytics technology is chosen for a project, Sallam noted. To me, the technology itself is almost irrelevant its almost a red herring, she said. Business users couldnt care less about in-memory analytics. What they care about is being able to rapidly and intuitively analyze large amounts of data. Buying and installing a particular kind of business analytics software simply because its the latest and greatest technology on the market is a recipe for failure, Sallam added. To avoid problems, she advised, advanced data analytics tools have to be deployed in close partnership with end users. A lot of times in the past, the IT department has said, Oh, we need a data warehouse, and they just went off and built the biggest, baddest data warehouse ever without talking to business users, Sallam said. And then nobody ever used it.
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Keep the lines of communication open on data analytics tools projects Howard Dresner, a former Gartner analyst who now is president of Dresner Advisory Services LLC in Nashua, N.H., agreed with Sallam. IT departments and business intelligence (BI) teams that support deployments of analytic applications must communicate closely and openly with business users as technology decisions are made, he said. IT needs to be responsive. They need to be joined at the hip with the end user, said Dresner, who coined the term business intelligence while working for Gartner. Of course, business analytics tools must also meet an organizations overall needs and requirements to justify investments in them a fact that isnt lost on Sri Vemparala, manager of reporting and BI at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. New technologies are always alluring but Vemparala said that at Stanford, where the BI group supports the universitys admissions, research and finance operations, in-memory analytics and other advanced data analytics tools arent really needed yet. I would say 80% of our BI is operational reporting at this point, Vemparala said, adding that technologies such as in-memory analytics would be a step beyond that. And while Vemparala is interested in exploring ideas for taking Stanfords BI program to the next level via analytics and performance metrics, hes only looking for now. He said that likely would change only if an analytics software vendor proves to him that a technology could provide significant value to the university and be easily deployed by adding a bundled appliance, for example. Success with data analytics tools requires proper data management In addition to ensuring that business analytics technology is the right fit for specific end users and an organization as a whole, IT and BI teams need to make sure that theyve fully addressed data management issues before deployment. In the case of in-memory analytics, data governance policies need to be put in place in order to ensure that data definitions, dimensions and calculations are consistent, Sallam said.
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Proper change management procedures are also critical, from both a technology and business-process standpoint, she added. That means putting enough thought and resources into training and supporting end users so that an analytics investment pays off in terms of adoption, usage and business results. Sallam cited a 2006 Gartner case study on a project at Euro Disney, which operates the Disneyland Paris theme park, as an example of how an organization was able to successfully deploy BI and data analytics tools due to effective change management. She said the BI system was designed to predict and then monitor the length of lines at the parks rides and restaurants; when problems were identified, more workers were sent to the affected locations, helping to boost customer satisfaction, according to Sallam. Instead of trying to make those staffing decisions based on past experience or managerial intuition, park administrators learned to trust what the BI and analytics data was telling them a shift in organizational culture that Sallam said Euro Disney was able to instill as part of the project. Corporate BI standards could affect choices of data analytics tools Businesses that have adopted a specific BI suite as a corporate standard should carefully consider the implications of buying data analytics technology thats outside of their designated standard, according to Rick Sherman, founder of Stow, Mass.-based consulting firm Athena IT Solutions. If they do that, then they need to look at what the issues would be of having another technology and another data stack, Sherman said, explaining that the need to coordinate data between different BI and data analytics tools could create complications for IT and end users alike. Allowing ample time to make sure that all of the kinks have been worked out before any new technology is actually deployed sounds like simple advice but its something that many organizations overlook on BI and analytics projects, said Mark Smith, an analyst at Ventana Research in Pleasanton, Calif.
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You have to do a certain level of testing, Smith said. Some of thats obvious, but some [people] think you can deploy the technology right away.
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Are packaged business analytics tools right for your organization?

By Mark Brunelli, News Editor Technology professional Sri Vemparala believes that its important to choose analytics tools based on how well they support business needs. But he also understands that, oftentimes, the business doesnt know exactly what it needs from analytic applications. Thats why Vemparala, manager of reporting and business intelligence (BI) at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., thinks that the emerging category of packaged business analytics tools could be a big help to some organizations. The packaged applications typically are pre-configured for different types of end users, sometimes in specific vertical industries. As a result, Vemparala explained, they can serve as an effective guide to analytics capabilities and potential uses for business professionals. Most times, business [users] dont know what they want in the sense that you have to tell them what kind of data is available and all that stuff, he said. But when you demonstrate a pre-packaged application from a vendor, they can easily relate to it immediately. The number of bundled business analytics software packages available to users is growing, creating the potential for faster installations of analytics tools at organizations that can meet their needs with pre-configured applications. The benefits and drawbacks of packaged business analytics tools The packages, which provide sets of reports and analytic routines designed to be used out of the box, are usually less expensive and easier to deploy than the traditional configure-ityourself versions of analytics software are, according to Vemparala and several IT industry analysts. However, they added that packaged analytics technologies do come with some drawbacks that prospective customers need to take into account. For starters, Vemparala said, packaged business analytics tools arent quite as easy to deploy as vendor marketing campaigns tend to suggest.
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Nothing works out of the box, as they say it does every environment is different, he noted. We got some pre-packaged analytics for student data recently, but it took us a while to get [the software] up and running, definitely longer than what [the vendor] said. Getting pre-configured business analytics applications ready to use can require a great deal of effort on the back end, Vemparala said. For example, the software needs to be connected to an organizations existing BI architecture via application programming interfaces. And some level of customization will always be necessary, he said. In addition, Vemparala cautioned that before doing any customization work or buying packaged applications in the first place its important to know whether the changes would affect the software vendors technical support policy. You need to do a thorough analysis of any [functionality] gaps and work with the vendors to understand what will happen to support if you decide to fill in the gaps, he said. Joshua Greenbaum, founder and principal of Berkeley, Calif.-based Enterprise Applications Consulting, said that packaged analytic applications can be a sensible choice, especially for organizations worried that theyre falling behind the competition in terms of analytics capabilities. Packaged software is also a good fit for small and midsized organizations that want to install a portfolio of analytics technologies without having to devote a lot of resources to the project, Greenbaum said. Due diligence needed on packaged business analytics tools But he added that BI and analytics teams need to do their due diligence to make sure that packaged business analytics tools will support internal BI needs and in the case of industry-specific applications that the software is based on current industry terminology and business models. Its usually faster to acquire and implement pre-built analytics than it is to try and get into the queue at the IT department and have them build it for you, Greenbaum said. The flip side is that you can be seduced by the simplicity of the packaged solution, and it may really
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not be good enough for what you need. The business requirements need to drive the analytical solution. Many of the pre-configured analytics bundles being sold by vendors now are built around horizontal business processes for example, sales, logistics and financial reporting. But Greenbaum thinks users increasingly will be able to get better insight and business results from packaged applications tailored to their particular markets. More and more, the real value in analytical apps is going to come from very specific analytics in your industry, he said. Software vendors have been pushing BI for the masses, or pervasive BI, for years the idea being to make BI and analytics capabilities available to a wider group of business users within organizations. Because of their pre-configured nature, packaged analytic applications could help make pervasive BI more of a reality for companies. But customers should avoid the temptation to over-buy, said George Goodall, a senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ontario. For example, not everyone needs the ability to access multidimensional data cubes, Goodall said. He noted that potential analytics users fall into three general categories: managerial decision makers, business and data analysts, and everybody else. You need to deliver something for the managerial user, and you need to deliver something for the analysts, Goodall said. For the rest of the organization, he recommended that purchases of analytic applications be based on the bare minimum requirements for analytics capabilities. Packaged business analytics tools: More questions to consider There are other questions to consider when weighing a possible purchase of packaged business analytics applications. Does your organization possess the skills to use the tools to their fullest? Is there a project management process in place to help you unleash the applications once you buy them? Is there sufficient data quality within the organization to deliver accurate answers to analytic queries?
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When we look at how some of these systems fail, its very rarely due to the underlying technology, Goodall said. The biggest issue I hear from people is the fact that [organizations] lack the capability and the IT maturity to effectively deploy these things.
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Data visualization, social media analytics could be keys to pervasive BI

By Jeff Kelly, News Editor Business intelligence (BI) vendors and industry analysts have been talking about pervasive BI "BI for the masses" for years now. But, by most accounts, BI has yet to break through to the desktops or BlackBerrys of marketing managers, salespeople, shop floor directors and other business users. A recent survey of BI end users and managers by the U.K.-based Business Application Research Center revealed that only 11% of respondents have BI deployed to more than 50% of employees in their companies. Many factors contribute to the lack of business user adoption, but an important one is the technology itself. BI vendors are constantly touting innovations that will bring BI to the masses, but so far to no effect. There is hope, however. Here are three technologies that could play critical roles in spreading BI to more business users: Data visualization. Perhaps the most sure-fire way to spur business user adoption of BI is to improve data visualization technology. The easier it is for non-analysts to view and make sense of dashboards and other data visualizations, the more likely they are to use BI technology. A handful of vendors, both large enterprise software companies and smaller data visualization specialists, have come up with enhancements to existing data visualization techniques to do just that. Among them is the ability to easily overlay multiple data sets on a bar graph or chart via drag-and-drop tools. Other improvements include improved usability of heat maps, geographic mapping analysis and time-series analysis charts, according to analysts.
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The amount of data that data visualization tools can analyze is also on the increase, thanks in part to in-memory technology. In-memory analytics engines load data into random access memory rather than disk, increasing query speed and lessening the amount of data modeling needed with traditional BI platforms. And one open source predictive analytics language is enabling the creation of new types of data visualizations that make previous visualizations look kind of tacky in comparison, according to Marick Sinay, a financial analyst with a large multinational bank, who uses the technology on a daily basis. Called R, the free software language was designed for statistical computing and graphics. Social media analytics. Social media analytics is an emerging discipline, and so are the tools that enable it. Currently, most social media analytics technologies require significant expertise to use and are far from perfected. But Forrester Research Inc. analyst James Kobielus thinks that social media analytics tools as they become easier to use will be integrated into traditional BI platforms. That makes it more likely that non-power users will get their hands on the technology and understand what the blogosphere is saying about their companies. Facebook, the worlds largest and most influential social networking site, is doing its part to bring BI to the masses. The site offers page owners a number of analytics tools to monitor and measure referral traffic, demographic data and click-through rates, according to Alex Himel, a Facebook software engineer. By understanding and analyzing trends within user growth and demographics, consumption of content, and creation of content, [Facebook] page owners and platform developers are better equipped to improve their business with Facebook, Himel said. Unstructured data analysis. A related technology that could make BI more appealing to business users is unstructured data analysis. More than 80% of corporate data sits in Word documents, emails and other unstructured forms, according to analysts. Much of the data business users interact with each day is
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unstructured. Improving the ability to access and analyze that data would probably prompt more business users to adopt BI technology. Most current BI platforms are not well suited to unstructured data analysis, according to Forresters Boris Evelson. And text analytics tools have yet to reach a level of maturity that would be inviting for non-power users. But a couple of vendors are experimenting with integrating enterprise search technology with more traditional BI platforms in hopes of solving both problems, Evelson said. If successful, the new tools could prove particularly useful for marketing analytics, such as parsing user comments and reviews from online forums. There are other things that need to happen including better end-user training before BI truly comes to the masses. But improvements in data visualization, social media analytics and unstructured data analytics technologies would go a long way to making pervasive BI a reality.
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Resources from Actian Corporation
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Actian Corporation (formerly Ingres Corp.) is the first to deliver a cloud development platform for building Action Apps. Action Apps are lightweight consumer-style applications that automate business actions triggered by real-time changes in data. Actian products incite action at more than 10,000 customers worldwide by driving their mission critical workloads and providing rapid action insights to their data. Vectorwise is the foundational technology for developing Action Apps on the Cloud Action Platform. An analytic engine that's strong enough to handle today's information overload, Vectorwise can power through miles of data in seconds, speeding analysis and delivering instant insight to business users when and where they need it, whether that's to a PC in the office or a mobile device in the field. Actian is headquartered in Redwood City, California with offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Melbourne.
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Game-Changing Business Analytics Trends

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Game-Changing Business Analytics Trends

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E-Book

Game-changing business analytics trends for 2011 and beyond

Game-changing business analytics trends for 2011 and beyond

Business analytics trends yield tools with potential if youre ready

Download a FREE Vectorwise Trial

Supercharge BI Analytics with Vectorwise

Download a FREE Vectorwise Trial

Analytics to More Users

Actian Europe Limited

Actian Australia Pty Ltd

Deploying data analytics tools requires focus on more than technology

Are packaged business analytics tools right for your organization?

Data visualization, social media analytics could be keys to pervasive BI

Resources from Actian Corporation

About Actian Corporation

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