An Analytical Platform For The Smart Enterprise An Analytical Platform for The Smart Enterprise THE DATA AND ANALYTICS DRIVEN ENTERPRISE The proliferation of mobile devices and presence on the web has made competitors much more visible Consumers are now spending considerable amounts of time online In today’s connected world, competition is increasing faster than ever. An obvious reason for this is the fact that the web has made competitors far more visible to customers and prospects. So much so, that retaining existing customers is now just as important and gaining new ones. Another key reason for this is the proliferation of connected devices. Almost all of us in the modern world are carrying some kind of device that connects to the Internet. Walk out on any street corner and just look around. Almost everyone is looking down at a device. If doesn’t matter where you are. If you go into a coffee shop, a railway station, an airport, a shopping mall you see the same thing. They’re all online whether it is searching, browsing products and services, looking at what others are saying on social networks, or reading reviews about products and services on review websites. Business-to-business online retail is projected to grow at twice that of the consumer market You might argue that this kind of consumer behaviour doesn’t apply in the business-to-business world. Really? On the contrary, one piece of research1 estimates that B2B online retail is projected to grow to $6.7 trillion by 2020, more than twice that of the B2C market. The same research indicates that this is due to the rapid migration of organisations from legacy systems to open, online platforms. Companies are on a mission to transform traditional business practices. It’s what some refer to as digitalisation - the rush to the web to get visible, cut costs, and make it easy to transact business online. Customers and prospects are more powerful than ever because they are informed So what is the impact? That is already clear. With increasing choice on the Internet, customers and prospects are more powerful than ever because they are informed. In a very short period of time they can search the Internet, find competitive products and services, bookmark what is of interest and switch between sites comparing prices, capabilities and options. In many cases they can go to comparison websites, which do all this for them. Once they have a good idea of what they want to buy, they can check out social media, find review web sites and ask questions in a few forums to see how others rate the products and services of interest. Then, with all this information at hand, the fully informed customer will choose. They can switch brands at the touch of a mobile phone screen or the click of a mouse. When you look at it this way, you quickly realise why this kind of capability has made customer loyalty cheap. Comparison sites are making it easier to get informed quickly Customer loyalty is becoming cheap The omni-channel front office is now critical to keeping and engaging customers Trusted data and analytics are mission critical to success What has this got to do with data and analytics? Simple. In an increasingly online economy, you have to know your customers. You have to engage them consistently across all channels (Omni-channel), know what they want and offer personalised high quality products and services. The only way you can do that is with data and analytics. Evidence based decision-making based on effective analysis and interpretation of rich, high quality, verifiable data is now mission critical to success. Organisations that can do this are data and analytics driven enterprises. They have a greater chance of succeeding because they often have the richest insights to know what customers want. 1 Frost & Sullivan, Future of B2B Online Retailing, December, 2014 Copyright © Intelligent Business Strategies Limited, 2015, All Rights Reserved 3 An Analytical Platform for The Smart Enterprise KEY REQUIREMENTS IN A MODERN ANALYTICAL ENVIRONMENT Insights and analytics are needed enterprise wide It’s not just customer related use of analytics that is important. Areas like risk, finance, and operations can all benefit from ‘right time’ insights. If your organisation is striving to become a data and analytics driven enterprise, then there are a number of key requirements and use cases that should be met in a modern analytical environment. BUSINESS ALIGNMENT Insights produced need to help companies achieve their strategic business goals The first of these is business alignment. Any analytical programme needs to ensure that insights produced, and decisions and actions taken, provide an effective contribution towards achieving the goals, priorities and targets set out in the organisations’ business strategy. It doesn’t matter if it is a big data project, a streaming analytics project or a traditional data warehouse project to produce reports and dashboards. TRADITIONAL AND NEW DATA SOURCES New data is needed to enrich what companies already know about customers Behavioural and social data is often missing from data warehouses Analysing in-bound emails, call centre notes and social network data can provide insights into sentiment Analysis of more complex data is needed The aforementioned discussion on customer insight is a classic example of the need for more data beyond what may already reside in data warehouses and data marts. Many companies are realising that if they are to remain competitive, it is not the technology that is going to make that happen. It’s the data. And for many, internal and external data sources are needed to produce truly differentiating customer insights to give them an edge over competitors. Additional data on hobbies, interests, life events, previously unknown relationships and even desires may come from external social and professional network data. Also, new customer interaction data provides insight into behaviour. Examples include clickstream interaction data, which is challenging to process and analyse because it can be very large in volume. Inbound emails, call centre notes, social networks and review web sites are good sources of sentiment. Many of these new data sources provide data that is not structured and so data of interest first needs to be identified and extracted before it can be integrated with other data and analysed. In the case of business customers, external data sets such as open government data or SEC filings (or equivalent) may add real value. Live streaming data to optimise business operations Finally there is high velocity data. Financial markets data and sensor data for example. Sensor data provide insight into usage of ‘smart’ products, manage assets and optimise field service, optimise manufacturing processes, supply chains and distribution chains. New platforms have emerged to support new kinds of analysis Looking at all this, the characteristics of new data needed are also changing Please complete the form to gain access to this content Access Now Related Resources Succeed and build brilliant products Enterprise Case Study: Democratizing Insights in the NHS Big Data for Big Industries 6 Global Trends Sweeping Healthcare and How Analytics Help You Respond The Sustainable Supply Chain 3 Big Data Myths Busted 10 Secrets to Winning with Analytics What Makes Qlik Unique See The Whole Story That Lives Within Your Data 7 Tips For More Effective Visualizations Qlik for IT Infrastructure The Real Story Behind The Whole Story
An Analytical Platform for The Smart Enterprise THE DATA AND ANALYTICS DRIVEN ENTERPRISE The proliferation of mobile devices and presence on the web has made competitors much more visible Consumers are now spending considerable amounts of time online In today’s connected world, competition is increasing faster than ever. An obvious reason for this is the fact that the web has made competitors far more visible to customers and prospects. So much so, that retaining existing customers is now just as important and gaining new ones. Another key reason for this is the proliferation of connected devices. Almost all of us in the modern world are carrying some kind of device that connects to the Internet. Walk out on any street corner and just look around. Almost everyone is looking down at a device. If doesn’t matter where you are. If you go into a coffee shop, a railway station, an airport, a shopping mall you see the same thing. They’re all online whether it is searching, browsing products and services, looking at what others are saying on social networks, or reading reviews about products and services on review websites. Business-to-business online retail is projected to grow at twice that of the consumer market You might argue that this kind of consumer behaviour doesn’t apply in the business-to-business world. Really? On the contrary, one piece of research1 estimates that B2B online retail is projected to grow to $6.7 trillion by 2020, more than twice that of the B2C market. The same research indicates that this is due to the rapid migration of organisations from legacy systems to open, online platforms. Companies are on a mission to transform traditional business practices. It’s what some refer to as digitalisation - the rush to the web to get visible, cut costs, and make it easy to transact business online. Customers and prospects are more powerful than ever because they are informed So what is the impact? That is already clear. With increasing choice on the Internet, customers and prospects are more powerful than ever because they are informed. In a very short period of time they can search the Internet, find competitive products and services, bookmark what is of interest and switch between sites comparing prices, capabilities and options. In many cases they can go to comparison websites, which do all this for them. Once they have a good idea of what they want to buy, they can check out social media, find review web sites and ask questions in a few forums to see how others rate the products and services of interest. Then, with all this information at hand, the fully informed customer will choose. They can switch brands at the touch of a mobile phone screen or the click of a mouse. When you look at it this way, you quickly realise why this kind of capability has made customer loyalty cheap. Comparison sites are making it easier to get informed quickly Customer loyalty is becoming cheap The omni-channel front office is now critical to keeping and engaging customers Trusted data and analytics are mission critical to success What has this got to do with data and analytics? Simple. In an increasingly online economy, you have to know your customers. You have to engage them consistently across all channels (Omni-channel), know what they want and offer personalised high quality products and services. The only way you can do that is with data and analytics. Evidence based decision-making based on effective analysis and interpretation of rich, high quality, verifiable data is now mission critical to success. Organisations that can do this are data and analytics driven enterprises. They have a greater chance of succeeding because they often have the richest insights to know what customers want. 1 Frost & Sullivan, Future of B2B Online Retailing, December, 2014 Copyright © Intelligent Business Strategies Limited, 2015, All Rights Reserved 3 An Analytical Platform for The Smart Enterprise KEY REQUIREMENTS IN A MODERN ANALYTICAL ENVIRONMENT Insights and analytics are needed enterprise wide It’s not just customer related use of analytics that is important. Areas like risk, finance, and operations can all benefit from ‘right time’ insights. If your organisation is striving to become a data and analytics driven enterprise, then there are a number of key requirements and use cases that should be met in a modern analytical environment. BUSINESS ALIGNMENT Insights produced need to help companies achieve their strategic business goals The first of these is business alignment. Any analytical programme needs to ensure that insights produced, and decisions and actions taken, provide an effective contribution towards achieving the goals, priorities and targets set out in the organisations’ business strategy. It doesn’t matter if it is a big data project, a streaming analytics project or a traditional data warehouse project to produce reports and dashboards. TRADITIONAL AND NEW DATA SOURCES New data is needed to enrich what companies already know about customers Behavioural and social data is often missing from data warehouses Analysing in-bound emails, call centre notes and social network data can provide insights into sentiment Analysis of more complex data is needed The aforementioned discussion on customer insight is a classic example of the need for more data beyond what may already reside in data warehouses and data marts. Many companies are realising that if they are to remain competitive, it is not the technology that is going to make that happen. It’s the data. And for many, internal and external data sources are needed to produce truly differentiating customer insights to give them an edge over competitors. Additional data on hobbies, interests, life events, previously unknown relationships and even desires may come from external social and professional network data. Also, new customer interaction data provides insight into behaviour. Examples include clickstream interaction data, which is challenging to process and analyse because it can be very large in volume. Inbound emails, call centre notes, social networks and review web sites are good sources of sentiment. Many of these new data sources provide data that is not structured and so data of interest first needs to be identified and extracted before it can be integrated with other data and analysed. In the case of business customers, external data sets such as open government data or SEC filings (or equivalent) may add real value. Live streaming data to optimise business operations Finally there is high velocity data. Financial markets data and sensor data for example. Sensor data provide insight into usage of ‘smart’ products, manage assets and optimise field service, optimise manufacturing processes, supply chains and distribution chains. New platforms have emerged to support new kinds of analysis Looking at all this, the characteristics of new data needed are also changing
