Business Analytics Get Better at Reporting

Data analytics is not a new topic. In fact, in some ways data is useless unless it's analyzed in some way -- even if only sorted in a spreadsheet. But these days, the crushing amounts of data generated by a wide variety of applications is tough for any enterprise to digest.

Because of that, most of the systems put in place over the last few years have required significant processing horsepower, continuous development energy, and access to large data stores in order to deliver usable information. On top of that, these systems have typically been historic in their views.

The next step in the evolution of analytics is to deliver analysis to the desks of people who can understand and act on the information in time for their actions to have relevance to the business.

Enter business analytics reporting, a task that is easier said than done. But it’s a problem on which several suppliers are focused.

Data visualization and presentation are key to this new kind of usable information, says Venkatesh Komarla, general manager and head of the analytics business unit for IT services firm MindTree Ltd. In his view, sophisticated visualization programs can quickly represent trends and significant variables via high-quality graphics and constructs.

The point is to intuitively understand the underlying data; the days of looking at large tables and manipulating pivot tables are past -- they consume too much time, and the complexity of the task could lead to errors.

Detail is the key. A program should support well known binary (WKB) representation, Komarla says. It should also display new visual constructs such as dispersion graphs and statistical outputs like intuitive box plots. And it should leverage advances in Web technologies to provide easier access to very rich visuals through just a browser.

Another supplier stresses the value of having predefined sets of tools with prebuilt links to widely used applications. "With our data growing at a rate of 15 petabytes of new data each day, it's necessary to get the right analysis to the right users so they can make smart decisions,” said Farhana Alarakhiya, business unit executive for analytic applications at IBM, which recently announced additions to its analytics reporting software.

Alarakhiya points to an early user in the HR industry, where the staff typically acted in response to queries from their field offices and customers. "They were generating head counts and other reports that were needed by the managers of their remote offices on a regular basis." What the staff didn't have time for was the analysis of whether the offices had the right kind of talent, were recruiting the right skills, and were anticipating the growth in the proper segments of the business.

According to Alarakhiya, a reporting and analytics package now allows a staff of four to obtain forward-looking information that guides immediate and ongoing decision-making for 10,000 employees.

A growing roster of solutions and products for data analytics reporting are available from other vendors, including Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) and Birst, which is issuing release 4.0 of its SaaS-based analytics reporting tool next week.

While each supplier has its own claims, and some products are only starting to become available, it is clear that the groundwork to deliver analytics information is being laid, and the promise of more usable intelligence based on live data may be in the works.

— Scott Koegler was a CIO for 15 years, and has been writing about technology for the last 18 years. He is editor of www.ec-bp.org, a newsletter that addresses supply chain technologies, and EDI in particular. You can contact him at scott@koegler.net.