Delivering Business Analytics

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.

• Preface xiAcknowledgments xixPart One Business Analytics Best Practices 1Chapter 1 Business Analytics: A Definition 5What Is Business Analytics? 5Core Concepts and Definitions 7Chapter 2 The Competitive Advantage of Business Analytics 11Advantages of Business Analytics 14Challenges of Business Analytics 23Establishing Best Practices 27Part Two The Data Scientist’s Code 29Chapter 3 Designing the Approach 31Think about Competencies, Not Functions 31Drive Outcomes, Not Insight 36Automate Everything Non-Value-Added 38Start Flexible, Become Structured 40Eliminate Bottlenecks 43Chapter 4 Creating Assets 47Design Your Platform for Use, Not Purity 47Always Have a Plan B 52Know What You Are Worth 54Own Your Intellectual Property 57Minimize Custom Development 60Chapter 5 Managing Information and Making Decisions 65Understand Your Data 65It’s Better to Have Too Much Data Than Too Little 69Keep Things Simple 74Function Should Dictate Form 77Watch the Dynamic, Not Just the Static 79Part Three Practical Solutions: People and Process 85Chapter 6 Driving Operational Outcomes 87Augmenting Operational Systems 88Breaking Bottlenecks 98Optimizing Monitoring Processes 106Encouraging Innovation 113Chapter 7 Analytical Process Management 127Coping with Information Overload 128Keeping Everyone Aligned 137Allocating Responsibilities 144Opening the Platform 151Part Four Practical Solutions: Systems and Assets 159Chapter 8 Computational Architectures 161Moving Beyond the Spreadsheet 162Scaling Past the PC 173Staying Mobile and Connected 180Smoothing Growth with the Cloud 183Chapter 9 Asset Management 191Moving to Operational Analytics 192Measuring Value 202Measuring Performance 210Measuring Effort 220Part Five Practical Solutions: Data and Decision Making 231Chapter 10 Information Management 233Creating the Data Architecture 234Understanding the Data Value Chain 242Creating Data-Management Processes 249Capturing the Right Data 256Chapter 11 Decision-Making Structures 263Linking Analytics to Value 264Reducing Time to Recommendation 269Enabling Real-Time Scoring 277Blending Rules with Models 284Appendix The Cheat Sheets 291Glossary 313Further Reading 331About the Author 333Index 335