When using the term "analytics," must the analysis be automated?

I recently asked a question about the "thin line between business intelligence and business analytics." It sparked a great discussion but it didn't provide me the insight I was actually seeking - so this is my second try. 'Analytics' is the hot term right now and everyone is jumping on the analytics bandwagon. When somebody says they have an "analytics application" should I assume, or insist, that the application automates the analysis of the business information I provide? Or, can somebody put the analytics-sticker on application that compiles, aggregates, sorts, packages, and disseminates information that is THEN analyzed by the recipients?

Topics

Analytics

Analytics Application

Business Analytics

Business Intelligence

Data

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Steven Romero

asked on Jan. 25, 2012

Bill Cabiro

Managing Director, Strat-Wise, LLC

Posted on Jan. 26, 2012

Steven, Analytics can be defned as the science of analysis. Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it.

In the case of business, the analytic process is simply logical thinking. It requires specific business acumen to know what questions need to be answered to find the root cause of issues and opportunities in order to make decisions that drive profitable growth.

Analytics software is the tool to manipulate the data in order to answer those questions rapid and effectively to understand what happened, when and where it happened, who was involved, how and why it happened as well as how likely it’s to happen again and what should we do to either provoke or prevent that from happening in the future.

However, at this point the software by itself cannot perform analysis, think or make decisions for us - pretty much like the fork cannot decide what should we have for dinner tonight - at least for now.

Regards, Bill
http://blog.strat-wise.com

Steven Romero Replied on Jan. 26, 2012

Thanks for your insights Bill. If I understand your correctly, what you describe does not sound new. If I'm correct, then what is all the new buzz about? Analytics is descirbed as the next big thing. Gartner says it is the #6 technology trend for 2012. Here is how they describe the trend:

"Next-generation analytics: Most enterprises have reached the point in the improvement of performance and costs where Cearley says they can afford to perform analytics and simulation for every action taken in the business. Not only will data center systems be able to do this, but mobile devices will have access to data and enough capability to perform analytics themselves, potentially enabling use of optimization and simulation everywhere. Going forward, IT can focus on developing analytics that enable and track collaborative decision making."

It is descriptions such as this that cause me to assume that "analytics solutions" can indeed do some analysis.

Thoughts?

Bill Cabiro Replied on Jan. 26, 2012

Steven, I fully understand your point. In the end it’s all relative to how complex, difficult and time consuming some of the manual processes used to be, compared to today’s tools that provide real time, mobile, highly visual and collaborative capabilities. http://blog.strat-wise.com/2011/08/04/what-is-bi-30.aspx

Regards, Bill