Cloud computing, big data and analytics, mobility and social have brought with them potential for unprecedented innovation in business, says Hannes van Vuuren, director: Software Group at IBM South Africa. "The question now is how to use them to weigh in on the bottom line?"
IBM studies have found that 63% - nearly two-thirds - of enterprises report that the use of information (including big data) and analytics is creating a competitive advantage for their organisations. This compares to 37% of respondents in IBM's 2010 New Intelligent Enterprise Global Executive Study and Research Collaboration - a 70% increase in just two years. Across the globe, enterprises maximising their data are slashing fraud and risk, taking new products to the right markets and the right time, predicting customer churn and dramatically reducing their operating costs through effective use of advanced big data, social, cloud and mobile technologies.
IBM notes that the digitisation of virtually everything now creates new types of large and real-time data across a broad range of industries. Much of this is non-standard data: for example, streaming, geospatial or sensor-generated data that does not fit neatly into traditional, structured, relational warehouses. Today's advanced analytics technologies and techniques enable organisations to extract insights from data with previously unachievable levels of sophistication, speed and accuracy.
In a nutshell, what's in it for business is better business opportunities, says Van Vuuren. "Now that IT underpins every area of business, advanced technologies have the potential to improve all areas of business. It is also important that all areas of business become informed of the potential for using new technologies to improve their operations and their bottom line."
Van Vuuren highlights that analytics have potential returns for most areas of the business. For example, the finance department - where appropriate use of analytics can help maximise the enterprise data asset to deliver new business models.
Marketing, where innovative analytics and integration of social media can enhance customer engagement and support targeted marketing and HR, where analytics can be harnessed for more effective talent management and risk mitigation.
Operations, where analytics can be employed for value chain enhancement and demand forecasting and product and services areas, where innovation in products and customer service can deliver competitive advantage.
IBM's upcoming annual Business Connect 2014 Conference, to be staged in Cape Town, Johannesburg and for the first time also in Durban in May, will spell out the potential benefits of these disruptive technologies for departments across the enterprise, addressing the top-of-mind questions and presenting practical solutions based on global best practice.
IBM Business Connect will be staged at The Oyster Box in Durban on Tuesday 20 May; the Pavilion Conference Centre in Cape Town on Thursday 22 May; and the Indaba Hotel in Johannesburg on Tuesday 27 May. For more information about the event, click here.
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