Issue 9 / February 2010 Transforming Information into Action
Perspectives interview:
Transforming
Information into Action
Jim Davis, Senior Vice President, SAS speaks
to Dougie McNeill, Head of Research
According to some, individuals
DMcN Business intelligence or DMcN Are some areas of analytics DMcN What do you think is driving DMcN Are there any downsides in DMcN Why do you think it is that so
generated more data in 2009
management information has always maturing faster than others? the change in the use of analytics? organisations becoming more adept at many companies struggle with analytics?
been important to companies, so what’s performing their analysis; do you think
than in the history of mankind.
new and why is it one of the top topics
JD Financial services is probably one of JD This down economy is driving change
there are some unanticipated
JD That’s an excellent question. A lot of
On the one hand, it is possible for companies today?
the most mature in understanding what in terms of how people use analytics,
consequences?
approaches we see fail because people say,
analytics can do for their business - from a regulatory perspective. For example, “We’ve got a lot of data, we need to access
to know more about every
JD That’s a great question to kick things off. mainly due to the fact the financial services before the downturn, there was a lot of JD I’m sure that there will be unanticipated it and analyse it, so let’s authorise a capital
prospect and customer, and I think business intelligence is probably an have been collecting data for a long period opportunistic activity about how to deal consequences. We look at it in terms of five
expenditure, and let’s get some new
to improve their customer
overused term today. It originally was about of time. with the customer, (business and stages. The first stage is just people doing hardware and software in here to fix the
experience based on what you
creating an independence in the end user consumer), and create offers pertinent to things on PCs. The second stage is problem”. That will not fix the problem.
community so they could gain access
For maturity of use we need to look beyond
them. This will continue to be a focus, but organisations using data consistently within The reason that companies struggle is not
know about them. On the other
to data, without having to submit
the technology into an organisation’s ability
now the focus is also risk: operational risk, a department. Then, the third stage is technology. Companies struggle by not
hand, it’s very easy to drown in
requests to IT. It served its purpose well
to deal with fact-based decisioning; and
credit risk, market risk. These are real where you get some unanticipated results. having the right people in the organisation,
the exponentially growing
but business analytics is about solving
there we need to look at people, process,
drivers of change and why people are using You begin to bring data together from who understand the importance of analytics
problems and creating opportunities –
technology and also culture. Culture plays
analytics. Fraud detection is another one. throughout the entire organisation and to and what they can do for the business.
stream of data.
with more of a future focus than a
a really big part in terms of analytic maturity.
see those things that you are doing well, Politics can come into play in large
Technology is driving change as well.
Dougie McNeill speaks to Jim Davis, Senior
backward look. There is a greater
Do we have a culture that is willing to
(the good news), but you may uncover a organisations, as well. Some people view
It used to be that analytics were confined
Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
understanding of what fact-based
accept change - more important, do we
number of things that aren’t performing information as power and maintain control
to a select few within an organisation –
for SAS about his views on what business
decisions can do for an organisation,
have a culture that will pro-actively look for
well within your organisation (faster). over their silos. To be successful, people
people that had PhDs in statistics;
analytics can do for organisations.
and what analytics can bring to that
change? That’s where analytics can really
That requires action and perhaps resources have to understand what the benefit is to
decision-making process. I think that’s
make a difference. or people who had access to mainframes.
that haven’t been part of your plan. Without the organisation. Then data begins to be
Jim co-authored “Information Revolution: really what we’re going to dig into here.
The cost of computing has really come
a doubt, you will find those things and they surfaced across departmental and
Using the information Evolution Model to
down; so the ability to automate that
will be unanticipated. The fourth stage organisational lines and we begin to see
Grow your Business.
1
” - which introduces
process is becoming much more
involves leveraging the integrated data to great benefits. But people are the most
a framework for companies to assess the
cost-effective and thereby more
figure out how to maximize performance. critical element.
current state of systems and decision
pervasive.
The fifth and final stage empowers
making capabilities. The stars are aligning. We’ve got an companies so they can anticipate changes
economy that’s challenging us. We have in key markets and respond accordingly.
1 http://www.sas.com/software/iem/index.html
regulatory issues and transparency issues Perceived down sides might be in how you
that we have to face; and we have the cost get to a place where you can trust what the
of computing at a point where it’s affordable data is telling you and move to fact-based
by the masses. decisions over intuition-based ones –
the cultural and organisational change
is often huge.
As I’ve outlined, we’d say you do it in
stages... again that’s about people and
processes, not technology.
12 / Perspectives on the future Perspectives on the future / 13
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