Is 2016 the year of mainstreaming Business Intelligence and Analytics?

Is 2016 the year of mainstreaming Business Intelligence and Analytics?

In IT circles, IoT and Analytics are mainstream! In the real business world, there appears to be an appetite and a genuine need, but the question is “Is it really happening?”

I have rather belatedly read Ajeet Singh’s article – 2016 Anti-Predictions for Analytics, and found it very interesting. Some of the statistics mentioned were a surprise eg 99% of data still being on premise.

Business technology trends do take multiple paths. I remember when we first started selling biometric solutions at Accsys over ten years ago, we would get in the door with biometrics, but the majority of clients still felt safer with cards.

It is the same with Employee Self Service, the take up is happening, but it is still largely at the early adopter stage in the SME market, in spite of overwhelmingly strong ROI indicators.

So for the majority of businesses, Analytics are still going through a growth stage on owned data. Taking it to the next level in terms of utilising the broader “big data” is still a world of tomorrow scenario.

Our ability to use broadly sourced information to drive business success and growth is going to be a key differentiator for any company acting on the global stage. As it will be for businesses who have chosen a local, niche or artisanal focus.

We need to understand trends, whether they are strategic, employee or client related. The personal touch is not easy to achieve, and knowledge via trend analysis makes it possible to place emphasis on the right behaviours as well as targeting better markets, and having critical information when building strategy.

The more I think and read about BI and Analytics, the more essential I believe they are. However, in talking to line management, there is feedback that the average business is not geared to easily analyse their internal data in meaningful ways. We are still receiving reports that tell us what has happened, instead of telling us what we should be doing.

The conversations indicate that we are falling short on predictions and trends specific to our businesses.

So maybe 2016 isn’t the year that BI goes mainstream, but it has to soon….

Links, References and Notes

Accsys provides people management solutions ie Payroll, Human Resources (HR), Time and Attendance as well as Access Control/Visitor Management.

The company develops, implements, trains and services our solutions. We provide readers, turnstiles, booms and CCTV.

We run both on premise and in the cloud, as well as mobile options for ESS. Recruitment, online education and Outsourcing are part of our offering, too.

Abbreviations

IoT = Internet of Things

RoI = Return on Investment

SME = Small Medium Enterprises

www.accsys.co.za

http://www.thoughtspot.com/blog/2016-anti-predictions-analytics

email: tschroenn@accsys.co.za

twitter: @TerylSchroenn

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