Business intelligence (BI) and analytics are the most important elements of planning, according to the IBM Global CIO Study, conducted in September.
The study says businesses need the capabilities of analytics software in conjunction with query and reporting tools, scorecards, dashboards and planning in order to harness the power of information, and turn it into knowledge.
“Simply having information is not enough, and knowing what has happened, while useful, will not provide any business benefit on its own,” says David McWilliam, manager at IBM business intelligence and performance management, SA.
“You need to be able to analyse this information in order to understand why an event or action occurred, so you can learn from this and improve business performance,” he says.
Deeper insight
McWilliam points out that analysis of information obtained from BI and performance management systems can occur on a number of levels, from broad consumer usage to more focused and specialised use.
“Analytics is an immensely powerful tool that can be leveraged to drill down into data and gain real insights from it, which can then be translated into measurable business benefits, such as improved processes, smarter decision-making, and the ability to answer important questions such as 'why' and 'what if',” adds McWilliam.
He explains that analytical capability provides a guided exploration of information related to all dimensions of an organisation, which facilitates complex analysis and scenario modelling to be conducted quickly and easily.
“While having information available to the right people at the right time is important using BI tools, it is the ability provided by analytics to forecast and predict scenarios, know why something happened, and what would happen should something change, that provides the real edge,” he notes.
“This enables people to make smart, future-focused business decisions and gain the true competitive advantage.”
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