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From TIBCO Spotfire's Business Intelligence Software Blog
Seth Grimes
is an analytics strategy consultant at Alta Plana Corporation, located near Washington DC. Seth is also a leading industry observer, focusing on business intelligence, text analytics, and decision support as a long-time contributing editor for TechWeb's Intelligent Enterprise, text analytics channel expert at the BeyeNETWORK, and founding chair of the Text Analytics Summit.
Q: Analytics of everything from online sentiments to real-time object status means the field is moving into non-traditional departments including marketing where people don't use Excel or math much. Is BI becoming mainstream, not just for data-crunchers?
A: Oh, we're there - marketers along with a gamut of other business users ranging from executives who need a strategic view to folks on the proverbial shop floor, by which I mean the folks who do the real, productive work. These aren't non-traditional departments; they're at the core of any and every business. And they don't (necessarily) use math a lot, at least not directly, much less Excel. Instead, they're getting analytics delivered in consumable, relevant forms that are tailored to their job functions.
Marketing analytics and Web analytics report on Web site performance, including for critical on-line advertising and commerce functions; marketing campaign analytics that reports on the open and response rates to e-mail; competitive intelligence that scours the Web to help marketers refine product design and positioning.
Other departments are like marketing in the sense that they're similarly getting analytics, often embedded in line-of-business applications, tailored to meet their needs. You just have to stop thinking of analytics as developed and delivered exclusively (or even primarily) through reports, dashboards, and spreadsheets. And it's great stuff by the way: real-time if appropriate, predictive, visual, embedded.
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