Business Analytics: Optimizing Your Operations

Introduction
The time has come for midsize businesses to more fully leverage informationand the knowledge that can be gleaned from that informationto their competitive advantage. For years, large enterprises held a significant advantage over their midsize rivals. With greater economies of scale and more information at their disposal, these organizations could take advantage of information assets to better assess the trends and patterns that were driving their markets. Despite their large size, enterprises have been able to increase their agility in the market by using business intelligence (BI) and analyticsoften at the expense of smaller competitors. Meanwhile, many midsize businesses have been forced to make do with either expensive and complex systems or rely only on spreadsheets to handle their BI and planning needs. But times have changed, and today smaller companies have access to many of the same capabilities that once were the domain of the enterprise. New approaches to business analytics have leveled the playing field, giving midsize companies essentially the same competitive insights and operational efficiencies as large organizations. With the latest technologies, IBM and its business partners can help midsize companies better use information to drive decisionsboth strategic and tacticalwhile at the same time lowering business transaction costs to help increase margins.

Table of Contents:

Introduction Overcoming Barriers and Challenges Leveraging Business Analytics and Information Reaping the Benefits Summary and Conclusion

Table of Contents

This ebook describes some of the key challenges facing midsize organizations today and how companies can overcome these hurdles and use the latest business analytics solutions to their competitive advantage.

they can not find it. In addition, 42% said they accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week, and 53% said less than half of the information they receive is valuable. Companies need timely, integrated company-wide information that enables datadriven decision making. At the same time, they need to better manage risk and address existing and emerging compliance reporting and requirements.

Overcoming Barriers and Challenges

A key challenge midsize companies face today is using information to gain genuine business value. Midsize organizations do not necessarily need more data to be successful. What they really need is more insightreal practical valuegleaned from all the data they are gathering. There actually can be such as thing as too much data, but there can never be too much insight. According to a survey of more than 1,000 managers at companies in the United States and United Kingdom by Accenture, managers spend up to two hours a day searching for information, and more than 50% of the information they obtain has no value to them. Only half of all managers think their companies do a good job governing information distribution or have established adequate processes to determine what data each part of an organization needs. The Accenture survey points out other deficiencies in how information is used. Some 59% of the managers said that as a consequence of poor information distribution, they miss information that might be valuable to their jobs almost every day because it exists somewhere else in the company and

Another challenge midsize companies face is that their customers are continuing to demand higher levels of personalized service, when and where they need it. This requires companies to know their customers more than ever. They must identify the most loyal and valuable customers in order to thrive, and to deliver more customized products, offerings and services.

Some 59% of the managers said that as a consequence of poor information distribution, they miss information that might be valuable to their jobs almost every day because it exists somewhere else in the company and they can not find it. In addition, 42% said they accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week, and 53% said less than half of the information they receive is valuable.

With information, people and goods being ever more interconnected, intelligent and instrumented, information holds more power than ever before. But with the quantities of

data exploding, midsize companies are finding themselves increasingly data rich but information poor. The power that information holds can only be fully leveraged if companies have the right tools in place to gain the right insights from their data, allowing them to make the most informed decisions (for example, planning for changes in market conditions, or understanding why a current process or system is inefficient or slowly becoming obsolete) and to take action faster. The planning process is often a disconnected exercise conducted periodically, so when key decisions are made it can take a long time to align the appropriate resources, both people and dollars, so the planning process needs to be interconnected. Midsize companies are competing in an increasingly global environment, and customer expectationsin terms of service deliveryare higher than ever. Failing to get the most out of the information and their resources that can set a company apart from the competition could have a huge negative impact on the business.

sales, find new customers, better serve customers, and increase productivity and efficiency. Companies can implement a number of software and hardware solutions to help them gain a competitive edge. These include IBM Cognos Express, IBM InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse, enterprise mashups, IBM System Storage DS3000 series, and SAN Volume Controller. Heres a brief look at how these solutions can add business value for midsize companies: IBM Cognos Express, an integrated business intelligence and planning solution designed to meet the needs of midsize companies, provides the reporting, analysis, dashboard, scorecard, planning, budgeting and forecasting capabilities midsize businesses need. Its made up of several modules, including Cognos Express Reporter, for self-service reporting and ad hoc query; Cognos Express Advisor, for analysis and visualization; and Cognos Express Xcelerator, for Excel-based planning and business analysis. Information is presented to the business user in a business context that makes it easy to understand, with an easy to use interface they can quickly gain the insight they need from their data to make the right decisions and then take action for effective and efficient business optimization and outcome. InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse is a data warehousing solution thats comprised of pre-tested, scalable and fully-integrated system components of InfoSphere

Leveraging Business Analytics and information

Opportunities abound for midsize companies to leverage data into competitive information that enables them to increase

Warehouse, Server and Storage. Newly enhanced models help midsize companies achieve greater access to information and analytics, faster time to value and reduced cost of ownership. Features provide application compatibility to help reduce the cost of data mart consolidation and simplified analytics that help business users discover revenue opportunities faster Enterprise Research firm Forrester projects mashups are that the enterprise mashup lightweight market will reach nearly $700 Web million by 2013. applications that are created by combining information or capabilities from multiple sources to deliver new functions, capabilities and insights. A mashup platform allows companies to create and deploy Web applications by assembling information and capabilities from multiple sources. A growing number of companies are using mashups as they discover the benefits, which includes giving individual users the ability to create applications that solve situational problems quickly or allow the company to take advantage of new business opportunities. By using these tools, companies rely less on scarce IT resources to solve business problems. Research firm Forrester projects that the enterprise mashup market will reach nearly $700 million by 2013.

The IBM Systems Storage DS3000 series provides a solution for workgroup storage applications such as email, file, print and Web servers, as well as collaborative databases and remote boot for diskless servers. Several versions are available. The DS3200 Express is an external storage enclosure designed for businesses managing increasing demand for capacity, data availability, and functionality. The DS3300 Express is designed for a range of organizations data requirements. And the DS3400 Express is a host-based external storage system aimed at a range of organizations. The SAN Volume Controller is designed to combine storage capacity from multiple disk systems into a reservoir of capacity that can be managed more efficiently, help increase storage utilization by providing host applications with more flexible access to capacity, and help improve storage administrator productivity by automating provisioning and enabling management of heterogeneous storage systems using a simple common interface. Potential benefits include improved application availability by reducing storagerelated causes of application downtime, reduced costs and improved flexibility, high performance and increased management efficiency.

While all of these solutions are critical components of a business analytics strategy, midsize companieswhich often

operate with limited IT resources and budgetneed not be overwhelmed by the variety of technology choices and implementation challenges. They can start small with solution implementations to meet the current business pains and challenges and then expand at their own pace, based on their needs, resources and goals for improved business performance and outcome. Many of these solutions are designed to be easy for midsize companies to install and use. For example, for companies that are getting started or expanding a BI strategy, IBM Cognos Express includes everything needed for immediate use in a preconfigured solution. The system plugs into existing infrastructures and can be up and running in as little as one hour. A single, centralized Web-based console manages all the administrative aspects. This means theres no additional burden on the IT department and no need for additional software investments. IBM Cognos Express is packaged and priced so that companies can start small with only the capabilities they need and then expand the solution as they grow. Companies can buy the full product with reporting, analysis, dashboard, scorecard, planning, budgeting and forecasting capabilities, or start with the specific module or modules they need today.

Reaping the Benefits

Midsize companies in any industry can greatly improve their processes and open up new opportunities through the use of business intelligence and business analytics solutions. This includes processes such as production, sales, marketing, customer service and support, and finance. For example, A financial services company was limited in terms of the number of users who had access to critical business data at any given time, which caused lags in the delivery of reports needed for accurate decision-making. With the implementation of a BI solution,reports that typically took days or weeks to create using database queries now take minutes, enabling much faster decision making. Another key benefit is having the planning process interconnected with the reporting and analysis, making better use of information to drive decisions and take action in a timely manner. Companies can leverage information to predict market trends and changes in customer demand and preferences, better plan marketing campaigns and more accurately forecast demand for products and services in different regions and over various time periods. For example, a company in the hospitality industry implemented a business intelligence system with IBM Cognos software and experienced easier access to data, which in turn

led to improved timelines and access to information. Thanks to the technology, the company was able to shorten monthend and quarter-end financial closing processes from multiple weeks to less than 10 days. Companies can also share the information and insights gleaned from these solutions throughout the organization, so anyone who needs this knowledge to do their jobs more effectively can have it. By having the insights gained from business analytics, companies can make better use of their resources. For example, they can expand the production of goods or delivery of services that they know will be in greater demand during a particular period of time, or reduce production and delivery of those that will see a decline in demand. Businesses can be proactive rather than reactive about market changes. This is invaluable in all industries but specifically in fast-changing markets such as technology and electronics.

Inefficient business processes can hinder business success, particularly in a difficult economic environment. According to research by IBM, businesses waste 5.3 hours per employee due to inefficient processes. Two-thirds of employees think there are colleagues who can help them do their jobs better, but they don't know how to find them. And 91% of CEOs surveyed by IBM said they needed to restructure the way their organizations work.

Summary and Conclusion

Theres clearly a need for companies to make better use of the data they are gathering, improve the decision-making process and enhance processes. Strategic decisions can no longer be a case of gut feel and trial and error. As the Accenture study showed, many people say they are forced to make decisions using the wrong input at least once a week.

For midsize companies, theres too much at stake to not take full advantage of information resources and business analytics technology. These tools, as well as emerging technologies that foster better collaboration, can help set companies apart from the competition. They can also enable greater efficiencies and open up new opportunities to expand the business and better serve customers. Adopting best practices in implementing and maintaining business analytics technology, and ensuring that the

According to research by IBM, businesses waste 5.3 hours per employee due to inefficient processes. Two-thirds of employees think there are colleagues who can help them do their jobs better, but they don't know how to find them. And 91% of CEOs surveyed by IBM said they needed to restructure the way their organizations work.

technology is aligned with business goals, can help midsize companies effectively address todays business challenges as well as those still to come.

Resources
Reporting for midsize companies. Empower your business with selfservice reporting http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/solutions/smallmedium-business/reporting.html What If Modeling with IBM Cognos Express http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/data/swlibrary/cognos/demos/od_ibm_cognos_express/what-if.html Simple Management with IBM Cognos Express http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/data/swlibrary/cognos/demos/od_ibm_cognos_express/simple.html Reporting with IBM Cognos Express http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/data/swlibrary/cognos/demos/od_ibm_cognos_express/reporting.html Dashboards with IBM Cognos Express http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/data/swlibrary/cognos/demos/od_ibm_cognos_express/dashboards.html Analysis with IBM Cognos Express http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/data/swlibrary/cognos/demos/od_ibm_cognos_express/analysis.html

According to research by IBM, businesses waste 5.3 hours per employee due to inefficient processes. Two-thirds of employees think there are colleagues who can help them do their jobs better, but they don't know how to find them. And 91% of CEOs surveyed by IBM said they needed to restructure the way their organizations work.