There is no point on aimlessly analysing data in the hope that something will jump out at you. It won’t and all that you will do is waste vast quantities of time and effort. Like any search, there must be an objective and a plan to reach that objective. This is where a mature approach to analytics comes in. The author reveals a mature approach to data analysis that includes 4 stages.
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Too often software evaluations are restricted to features and functions. It’s like evaluating a car by looking at individual components but without seeing if they all work together to meet your needs. So next time you are tempted to view a demonstration, make sure you’re prepared with questions that will help you to assess the true business value of the solution.
‘Business Analytics’ is often portrayed as the latest miracle cure for managers wanting to improve corporate performance. But like most IT-based capabilities, the hype is often in the realms of fantasy, which can never be realised. However, analytics is a capability that can bring tremendous value to those organisations who understand how and when it can be applied.
The role of planning is to help manage what can be controlled (i.e. the organisation’s business processes, the resources it applies to those processes, and the volume and quality of work done in those processes) to produce outcomes that will achieve organisational objectives, within an uncontrollable and unknowable external environment.
In this blog we will look at the components of a modern solution and why it matters. At the heart of every Analytic application is a mathematically based business model. This model describes the organisation in terms of its relationships between:
Organisations operate in an uncontrollable and often unpredictable business environment, such as market demand, energy, inflation and exchange rates. As a consequence, the role of planning is to help manage what can be controlled to produce outcomes that will achieve organisational objectives, within an uncontrollable and unknowable external environment.
Spreadsheets are without doubt the ‘killer’ application that turned the PC into an indispensable business tool. Before then, computing was the preserve of geeks and specialists who spoke in a language few accountants could understand as they served expensive, inaccessible machines locked away in their own air-conditioned environment.
Analytic models are rarely static. Their aim is to model the organisation in such a way as to allow managers to investigate what is actually going on and to assess changes to the way it operates.
At one of the previous meetings, The London FP&A Board addressed the technological requirements needed for effective FP&A. The well-known Chatham House anonymised rules were deployed to encourage a full and frank debate.
Organisations are finding it increasingly hard to plan or predict future performance due to the fast pace and complexity engendered by today's global, online business environment. And yet, within the vast quantities of data. available to management, there are tell-tale trends and correlations that reveal valuable insights to the direction they should take to maximise results.