Analytics for beginners and beyond

Business analytics vendors like to talk about enterprise solutions. And it’s not just because we want to sell more products. We’ve seen time and again that you can’t make good decisions about risk, for example, if you’re not anticipating potential hazards from every angle. Likewise, you can’t really understand a loyal customer if you’re just looking at her interactions with one of the dozen or so departments within your organization.

But what if your organization isn’t ready for a full-fledged corporatewide data integration and business analytics adventure? Where should you start if you want to begin simply and build as you go?

This issue of sascom includes a lot of great advice for getting started:

• If you’re new to the analytics arena and still trying to understand the differences between forecasting and predictive modeling, read the Tech Highlight column.
• If you’re struggling with building a culture that embraces analytics, don’t miss the Next Practices column.
• If you’re not prepared to shoulder the IT costs of implementing and integrating new technologies, consider hosted and on-demand options, like those used by customers.

Even our cover story, about a brand you know, shows how to use technologies hosted off-site to analyze your data and feed it back into your own systems to save millions of dollars. Interested?

Alison Bolen, Editor-in-Chief