From Industry-Generic to Industry-Specific Analytics
Historically, the analytical tools sold to a customer in one industry were the same tools provided to those in another—there was little or no tailoring of tools for particular industries. A chi square was a chi square, a logistic...
From Multi-Purpose to Focused Analytics
I argued in my last post that the analytical technology environment will change dramatically over the next several years. One key change will be a shift from multi-purpose technology environments to focused applications and...
Needed: A New Technology Environment for Analytics
I think we’re on the verge of a dramatic change in the technology architecture for analytics, and I plan to write several posts about it. If you think about it, we’ve had virtually the same technology environment for 20 years or so....
Agile vs. Industrialized?
James Taylor (http://jtonedm.com/about/), who is passionate about automated decisionmaking, has a new blog post (http://smartdatacollective.com/jamestaylor/26598/its-time-industrialize-analytics) in which he argues that analytics is...
Agile Analytics, Pt. 2
In this post I promised I would give some examples of “agile analytics.” One of the people who turned me onto this topic was Anne Robinson at Cisco Systems. She led a project to implement a new statistical forecasting project at...
The Rise of “Agile Analytics”, Pt. 1
A fair amount has been said and written of late on “agile BI,” or the use of agile—evolutionary, with frequent, small, and iterative outputs—methods to produce Business Intelligence outputs, specifically reports. It is difficult to...
Social Media Analytics Pt. 2: Managing in the Early Days
As I mentioned in my last post, it’s really early days for social media analytics. But that doesn’t mean that organizations shouldn’t get started in this domain. Herewith, a few suggestions for how to manage this emerging set of...
Social Media Analytics Pt. 1: It’s Really Early Days
I’ve been doing some interviews with companies that are toying with social media analytics. The idea, of course, is to measure aspects of social media—blogs, tweets, Facebook wall-writings, and so forth—to determine what consumers...
Putting Your Scorecard to Work, Pt. 3
This is Part 3 and the last post in a discussion of how to make corporate performance reporting more analytical. If a multivariate analytical reporting model is the ultimate in corporate performance management processes, what, then,...
Putting Your Scorecard to Work, Pt. 2
In my last post I described the need to move toward performance management that is more analytical, rather than just reporting-based. Not many firms are doing it yet. A few leading companies, however, have made moves in this...
Putting Your Scorecard to Work, Pt. 1
The process in which companies monitor and report their performance is due for an injection of analytics. Over the past 15 years, the most important innovation in this process has been the balanced scorecard, popularized by Robert...
There’s Still Plenty of Unexplored Analytical Real Estate
Just when I start thinking that analytics are everywhere, I realize that we are just scratching the surface of what can be done with them. Yes, many industries have considerable analytical activity under way, and more and more...
Part 3 of 3: Some Data and Analysis on Analytical Organization
Last year, my co-author Jeanne Harris and some Accenture colleagues of hers did a survey of quantitative analysts within large organizations. This was the first of its kind, to my knowledge. The report...
Part 2 of 3: Five Models for Analytical Organizations
In my last post, I described some general principles for organizing quantitative analysts. In this one, I’ll describe five different organizational models; surely one of them will fit your organization.First there is the totally...
Part 1 of 3 : A Big-Picture Look at General Principles
I’ve found that one of the most popular topics in the management of analytics is how to organize analysts. So I’m going to do a 3 (count ‘em) part series on that topic. This post will be about general principles for organizing...
The Roots of Analytical Silos
In my last post I described a variety of new analytically focused degree programs that are emerging at some universities. In this one I want to caution readers against the problem in universities that led us to the problematic...
The New Analytics Education Programs
You may not yet have noticed, but a flurry of new analytics education programs have arrived or are being created. The first of these was at North Carolina State, which happens to be the university where SAS started and the alma mater...
Every Number Tells A Story
One of my analytical heroes is a guy named Joe Megibow. He’s the VP of Global Analytics and Optimization at Expedia. I’ve never worked with Joe, but I’ve interviewed him several times for various research projects. Every time I talk...
The Geographical Spread of Analytics
I’ve been accumulating lots of frequent flyer points lately traveling around the world talking about analytics. In the last month I’ve been in Europe (twice), Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and various places in the US. One thing that has...
What’s Your Target in Sports Analytics?
This is probably one of the greatest months of the year for sports fans, with the World Cup, NBA Finals (which reached a regrettable conclusion June 17) and Stanley Cup finals all at more or less the same time. Major League Baseball...
