With giant leaps in technological innovation, accessing mountains of data is easier than ever. But why are data and analytics so important from a business perspective? Because it helps enhance business proficiencies and processes.

Companies today are quickly realising the importance of big data platforms and business analytics and the manner in which it can lead to significant organisational improvements and transformations.

What is Business Analytics?

Business Analytics like SAP Business Analytics focuses on exploring an organisation’s data in an iterative and methodical manner. It greatly emphasises the statistical analysis of data.

Companies worldwide use business analytics to make decisions that are data-driven. For them, data is a corporate asset which can give them a competitive edge over industry rivals.

The success of business analytics is possible only when the focal point is on the quality of data and intelligence being mined from it.

What is the Scope and Application of Business Analytics Within Organisations?

Costs to operate businesses are rising significantly. Therefore, technological advancements present companies with the opportunity to concentrate on increasing revenue generation whilst cutting down on operational expenses. By gaining insights into the foreseeable future, companies are able to improve their operational arrangement.

Having said that, it is not surprising that the scope of business analytics is seemingly expanding even more. This is simply because more and more mainstream companies are using analytics skills to enter the big data game.

Delving into business analytics demands the right attention, right technology, right people, right culture and top management commitment to function successfully. However, having the right applications on board is equally essential.

How Can You Plan Your Business Analytics Implementation?

Prior to evaluating the data, businesses need to answer some key questions.

• With so much data available, which data should be evaluated and where should it be sourced from?
• Which tools and technologies can help in this analysis?
• How can the company implement the insights drawn post assessing the data?

The insights extracted from analysing data trends help to find problem areas and gaps in the overall business operations. Interpretation of the market trends and loopholes means that you can take action to ensure that alternative ways of working are considered. The end objective, of course, is to make the business more productive and efficient.

The next step involves defining the business goal of why there is a requirement for the analysis to be conducted. You need to identify the most appropriate analytics methodology that will support your analysis goals.

To mine the relevant insights and intelligence from deploying business analytics processes, you will need to ensure that your business systems are in sync with the big data platforms. At the point of data extraction, the information needs to undergo filtering and cleansing. This is then integrated with a data warehouse, like the SAP Data Warehouse which acts as the single repository for the information.

Generally, an initial analysis is performed with a small data set sample.

This can be achieved using different types of business analytics tools. Spreadsheets with statistical functions are most common. However, complex data mining applications and predictive analytics models can be used to generate advanced level insights.

You will see trends, relationships and patterns emerging. In fact, the analytics process may be repeated until the goals of the business have been met.

The Bottom Line

To become a customer centric business, you must have data analytics as your central element that connects every arm of the company.

To fulfil your business analytics needs, get in touch with MDSap to know more about SAP business analytics and how it can benefit your business enterprise.