Considerations for Choosing Analytics
In today’s dynamic business environment, competitive forces are putting pressure on companies to better understand their customers and how to serve them, to optimize their operations and control costs, and to rigorously address security risks and regulatory requirements.
Properly applied, analytics can help in all these areas. Research conducted by Ventana Research finds that among significant business technology trends analytics is organizations’ top priority, identified as such by 39 percent of research participants.
Analytic technology comes in many shapes, sizes and varieties, ranging from single-purpose point tools to suites and platforms. Acquiring point analytics tools as needed to address particular needs can be appealing, but it also may be shortsighted. Tools designed for a single function or type of analytics do not aid in architectural integration of the technology across the business. While it is possible for organizations to put together individual best-of-breed analytics tools, doing so is a complex and costly undertaking that requires technical expertise.
A more encompassing platform approach can avoid these challenges while potentially offering greater long-term value. An analytic platform is a techno-logy environment that supports each step in the analytic process – data acquisition, data preparation, data analysis and deployment within an org-anization’s production systems. A robust analytic platform provides the foundation for a comprehensive approach since it provides a single reliable, up-to-date source of data that is governed professionally and used by the entire organization to make decisions consistently. A platform also should provide “sandbox” capabilities for data exploration and analytic flexibility, thereby offering faster time to value and competitive advantage for the business.