About UsThe Decision Factor offers insightful comments and observations on analytics—from views on new technology approaches and market dynamics to the latest industry trends driving demand for faster, smarter information analysis. This blog contains personal views, thoughts, and opinions from SAP employees, mentors, and friends working in the area of analytics. It’s not endorsed by SAP nor does it constitute an official communication of SAP. |
Posted by: Frans Smolders May 21, 2013  Everything seems connected to the internet. From cars and mobile phones to the fridge and the lawn mower. The future of machine-to-machine technology seems inevitable as people demand smarter applications to fulfill their ever-growing hunger for new information and their desire to do things quicker and better.
In 2013, mobile devices outnumbered the human population, and some estimates predict that 24 billion devices will be connected to the internet by the end of 2020. This trend impacts the way we do business in …
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Posted by: Markus Schunter April 30, 2013  Yesterday’s Analytics
Until recently, financial analysis-based decision making relied on a historical view of aggregate data –understanding yesterday’s events to influence tomorrow’s performance. Highly skilled data scientists took summary-level information – analytic engines would be quickly overrun by larger or more detailed volumes of data – and analyzed promotion effectiveness, capital ROI, or quarter-end results.
While useful, this approach posed several problems:
Analysis was by definition backward looking. Summary-level analysis could easily mask anomalies that, if identified, would change the …
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Posted by: Patricia Saporito April 29, 2013  Everyone is talking about “Big Data,” but what they really want are “Big Insights.” To realize significant insights requires an effective analytic strategy.
Many companies believe they have an analytic strategy when what they actually have is an architecture, which is important but certainly not all you need. An analytic strategy requires continuous strategic and tactical business alignment, defining and updating your analytic strategy in view of your business goals and objectives, and analyzing and updating your current analytic roles, analytic skills, business processes and …
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Posted by: Lance Holbert April 25, 2013  Business analytics has evolved dramatically from its humble beginnings in core data warehousing more than 30 years ago. It’s evolved from simple, decision support solutions to advancements in business intelligence (BI), enterprise performance management (EPM), and, most recently, intelligent data concepts and predictive analytic applications. Companies have embraced the value of analytics – solutions that combine data and analysis to drive insights – to help them differentiate, become more competitive, and make better business decisions.
A Pervasive Culture of Analytics
Almost everyone in your company can benefit from …
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Posted by: Bruce McCuaig April 18, 2013  I am trying to anticipate the impact of in-memory processing on governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) activities. What will it mean to risk, compliance, audit, and other GRC professionals when we have the ability to scan and analyze millions of pieces of data almost instantly? How will professional practices change? How will our reports and their content adapt? How will predictive analytics help us plan?
How Will In Memory Processing Impact GRC?
To get a glimpse of the future of GRC, I think it helps to consider live …
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Posted by: Erica Lailhacar March 7, 2013  We’ve all heard the old management phrase, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” but the reality is far more complicated than that. It isn’t practical or economically feasible to measure everything in a business. At the end of the day, it’s not about measuring what’s measurable— it’s about measuring what matters. Organizations have to choose what to measure when they’re building their analytics, which isn’t a trivial task.
Measure Past, Present and Future
Most analytic applications have historically focused on measuring past performance on a quarterly, monthly, weekly, …
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Posted by: Ina Felsheim September 4, 2012  Is anyone out there a fan of the new television series “Person of Interest?” In that show, a computer genius gathers big data from multiple sources (traffic cameras, crime reports, facial recognition, customs, etc.) to determine who is about to commit a crime *and* stop them from committing it. I’ve been meaning to write about the show for a while, as the data management challenges are rampant—then New York said they were trying to actually do it. Wow.
Short run-down from the
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Posted by: Mike Watschke June 28, 2012  Most would agree that every business, in every industry, requires more forward-looking, predictive analysis, giving management a good indication of expected results based on historical patterns that have developed over time. Predictive analytics, a logical extension to traditional business intelligence (BI), achieves what traditional BI was never intended to answer.
The Business Case
Typically, predictive analytics derives from a perceived performance problem in sales, inventory, supply optimization, marketing, etc. However, a reactive approach rarely garners the results that a proactive approach does. So, can’t we simply foresee that we need …
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