Delivering Business Analytics: Practical Guidelines for Best Practice

Praise for Delivering Business Analytics Practical Guidelines for Best Practice

"A stellar collection of real–life experiences of a business analytics expert and a bible for every leader of a business analytics function."
Kerem Tomak, VP of Marketing Analytics, Macys.com

"[This] book is densely packed with the Zen of business analytics from Evan Stubbss wealth of experience and expertise this is not ten steps to success for mindless management. It richly rewards re–reads and reflection."
James Mansell, Director of Innovation and Strategic Design, Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand

"In this book, Evan Stubbs addresses the many obstacles to delivering solid business results from analytics an analytics group that cannot demonstrate return on investment will soon lose funding. This book shows how to pick projects with good revenue potential and how to measure the value those projects create. I would recommend this to anyone who manages an analytics group."
Michael J. A. Berry, Business Intelligence Director at TripAdvisor, coauthor of Mastering Data Mining and Data Mining Techniques

"In this new book, Evan clearly outlines how an organization can get more value from business analytics. His descriptions of common problems and challenges, his identification of false solutions, and his clarity in describing best practices make for a readable book that practitioners should be able to put together at once."
James Taylor, CEO, Decision Management Solutions, coauthor of Smart Enough Systems and author of Decision Management Systems

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xix

Part One Business Analytics Best Practices 1

Chapter 1 Business Analytics: A Definition 5

What Is Business Analytics? 5

Core Concepts and Definitions 7

Chapter 2 The Competitive Advantage of Business Analytics 11

Advantages of Business Analytics 14

Challenges of Business Analytics 23

Establishing Best Practices 27

Part Two The Data Scientist s Code 29

Chapter 3 Designing the Approach 31

Think about Competencies, Not Functions 31

Drive Outcomes, Not Insight 36

Automate Everything Non–Value–Added 38

Start Flexible, Become Structured 40

Eliminate Bottlenecks 43

Chapter 4 Creating Assets 47

Design Your Platform for Use, Not Purity 47

Always Have a Plan B 52

Know What You Are Worth 54

Own Your Intellectual Property 57

Minimize Custom Development 60

Chapter 5 Managing Information and Making Decisions 65

Understand Your Data 65

It s Better to Have Too Much Data Than Too Little 69

Keep Things Simple 74

Function Should Dictate Form 77

Watch the Dynamic, Not Just the Static 79

Part Three Practical Solutions: People and Process 85

Chapter 6 Driving Operational Outcomes 87

Augmenting Operational Systems 88

Breaking Bottlenecks 98

Optimizing Monitoring Processes 106

Encouraging Innovation 113

Chapter 7 Analytical Process Management 127

Coping with Information Overload 128

Keeping Everyone Aligned 137

Allocating Responsibilities 144

Opening the Platform 151

Part Four Practical Solutions: Systems and Assets 159

Chapter 8 Computational Architectures 161

Moving Beyond the Spreadsheet 162

Scaling Past the PC 173

Staying Mobile and Connected 180

Smoothing Growth with the Cloud 183

Chapter 9 Asset Management 191

Moving to Operational Analytics 192

Measuring Value 202

Measuring Performance 210

Measuring Effort 220

Part Five Practical Solutions: Data and Decision Making 231

Chapter 10 Information Management 233

Creating the Data Architecture 234

Understanding the Data Value Chain 242

Creating Data–Management Processes 249

Capturing the Right Data 256

Chapter 11 Decision–Making Structures 263

Linking Analytics to Value 264

Reducing Time to Recommendation 269

Enabling Real–Time Scoring 277

Blending Rules with Models 284

Appendix The Cheat Sheets 291

Glossary 313

Further Reading 331

About the Author 333

Index 335

EVAN STUBBS is the Chief Analytics Officer for SAS Australia / New Zealand and sits on the board of the Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia. He is a prolific speaker and evangelist for the power of analytics, having written The Value of Business Analytics, a book explaining why some teams succeed while others fail. Over the years, he has developed human–machine interfaces for concept cars and models that predict criminal behavior, and has helped organizations establish analytical centers of excellence.