Week 12 Notes

Rise of Business Analytics

Business Analytics is the very similar to BI, and the technology has already been available to us for quite some time.

The difference is that BI provides more of a rear-view mirror approach, focusing on the data, what has been done and what is currently being done

Business Analytics focuses more on what can be done, like predictions, forecasts, how the data can be used usefully.

Even though the technology was available the organizations were not mature enough to ustilize this, plus it used to be a specialized feature, being pretty expensive, however, now the prices are getting much cheaper.

BI from ERP Systems

ERP companies are basically buying out BI companys, and bundling the ERP and solutions together, which is actually not too bad considering that the user gets a cheaper solution off the shelf.

However, the problem is that the application are based on the ERP design standards and requirements, which are quite different from BI ones

ERP requires speed of data entry, update and delete functionality, however, BI requires quick and intuitive access to data, with complex calculations, and attractive reports from various data sources.

BI on your mobile

The issues are:

• lack of bandwidth
• Desktop UI was basically squeezed onto a phone screen, not so attractive and useful
• Most of the current usage is more towards operational levels than strategic.

Innovation

There is very little innovation, more like marketing innovation, reselling the same idea, and some engieering evolutions, making systems and servers faster, however, not much has been done on teh BI itself or the UI.

Overall BI is still profitable, even in an economic crisis, because of the perception of companies that it is an essential source of technology which allows them to do more with less.