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The fact that the analytics is a strong industry buzzword now is not without a reason. Most experts opine that use of analytics can help the IT decision makers to make better, faster decisions and automate processes. It will enable them to build a solid foundation of strategic analytics products and services to take advantage of all of the data sources, including structured and unstructured data.
Factors driving Analytics
Business Analytics has been in the discussion amongst industry experts since almost two years now. Going by the capabilities of analytics, the research groups have estimated the analytics market stands at $17 billion worldwide. Most industry verticals including government, BFSI, IT, manufacturing sectors started depending on analystic in a big way owing the development and support and for localisation needs. Large fraction of the banking segment depends upon BA for diverse needs and achieves better outcomes and derives better customer satisfaction.
For instance SBI is the largest user of analytics. Some of the functions that the bank is keen using with analytics are for executive reporting systems, new recruitment process, to judge the propensity of employees, get monthly sales update sales forecasting etc. One customer, Asian paints is using analytics for doing the sales forecast and operational maintenance, as an extension to Business Intelligence.
Leading companies across various industries are using the insights they glean from analytics to achieve significant outcomes in areas such as customer satisfaction and retention, operational efficiency, financial processes, and risk, fraud and compliance management. Under the analytics, about 300 of our customers are using predictive analytics tool for varied functions. In case of analytics, investments are measured based on the sales performance after using the tools. About 20 to 30 banks monitor sales performancewith analytics. Other example is around insurance sector which uses analytics for creating product differentiation in the market place. Indeed analystics has been the game changer for many enterprises.
Where and When to Use Analytics
There is not an iota of doubt that analytics will turn insights into outcomes which is why most customers are fascinated by the technology. The challenges have been in plenty for the IT heads who struggling to feed the line of business with accurate figures and factors and market pulse. Unlike other technologies, analytics is driven by the finance, HR, marketing and other business groups and not so much by IT. The new trend is that the discussions and negotiations are carried out with the line of business.
Implementation Steps
There are a few tasks that the IT managers need to remember before jumping into a full-fledged deployment. It is critical to carry out a pilot implementation project on analytics. It is important to test the waters and understand the impact it is making on the business. The IT team needs to attend informal workshops and have some initial discussion with the business to understand how it should be taken forward, which can co-exist with the other tools. Another vital aspect is having a right choice of partner or partners, gaining insight into the problems and integration process. After a thorough analysis, a value statement needs to be created on what the construed as success and which can be measured.
IT heads can use specific type of dashboard, and deploy predictive analytic tool to measure the outcome. Most often the scale of implementation matters which determines the RoI. Take stock of unstructured and structured data using BI tools. Use data mining tools to map the data and transcript the same. Have security agencies deploy resources to form policies and analyse data to assess the potential threats and the data should be analysed in real time.
Technically speaking use of BA doesnt need a BI or data analytics. A well defined pilot project can be implemented in three months. IT along with business and finance departments plays a big role in zeroing on analytics.
Pay Backs
IT would not be an exaggeration to say that analytics would definitely help the CIOs when they are unable to plan a budget and there is complex situation. It will help in understand KPIs of the company. By embedding insights into actions across the organisation, one can gain clear insight into all areas of businesscustomers, competition, and the market, giving the business the ability to predict trends before they happen. Just to state an example, HMEL, a joint venture between Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore, has adopted a new IBM analytics-based solution to transform how the company manages its financial and operations data to boost business performance.
HMEL has built the 9 MMTPA (million metric tonne per annum) Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Bathinda, Punjab. The first oil and gas project to be set up in the state of Punjab, the refinery produces petroleum products complying with Euro IV emission norms, with a capability of processing 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The analytical solution integrated information from the various components of the MES, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and control systems within the refinery and delivers a consolidated, single view of the data. The technology enabled HMEL to analyse key corporate business processes including, planned versus actual investments, production, key performance indicators, among others. The system generated near real-time information for HMEL business executives to use to make more intelligent decisions around optimizing productivity and margins.
The IBM analytics solution not only delivered the ability to access data consistently, but also equips the organization with power to interpret, transform and derive process operation actions from the information. The industry standards based information model and associated integration techniques, enabled HMEL to turn data into information that can be accessed and delivered through Web services.
Prashant Tiwari,
Country manager,
IBM
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