Analytic applications

Last updated

Analytic applications are a type of business application software, used to measure and improve the performance of business operations. [1] More specifically, analytic applications are a type of business intelligence. As such they use collections of historical data about business operations to provide business users with information and tools that allow them to make improvements in business functions.

The maturity levels for business intelligence are:

It may extend further to predictive analytics, or predictive analysis may form part of the analytic application - depending on both the subject matter under analysis, and the nature of the analysis required.

Analytic applications are typically described as a subset of performance management. They specifically relate to the analysis of a business process (such as sales pipeline analysis, accounts payable analytics, or risk adjusted profitability analysis) in support of decision making.

To qualify as an application (rather than simply as a data warehousing tool), these tools should promote some form of automation. The maturity level of this automation is as follows:

In most cases, these three levels are discrete functions, loosely banded together as a single product, and there is little automation of the process from end to end.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Data warehouse</span> Centralized storage of knowledge

In computing, a data warehouse, also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is considered a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central repositories of integrated data from one or more disparate sources. They store current and historical data in one single place that are used for creating reports. This is beneficial for companies as it enables them to interrogate and draw insights from their data and make decisions.

Business intelligence (BI) consists of strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of BI technologies include reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, dashboard development, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytics</span> Discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data

Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It can be valuable in areas rich with recorded information; analytics relies on the simultaneous application of statistics, computer programming, and operations research to quantify performance.

Business software is any software or set of computer programs used by business users to perform various business functions. These business applications are used to increase productivity, measure productivity, and perform other business functions accurately.

Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than its individual users. Enterprise software is an integral part of a computer-based information system, handling a number of business operations, for example to enhance business and management reporting tasks, or support production operations and back office functions. Enterprise systems must process information at a relatively high speed.

Business intelligence software is a type of application software designed to retrieve, analyze, transform and report data for business intelligence. The applications generally read data that has been previously stored, often - though not necessarily - in a data warehouse or data mart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dashboard (business)</span> Aggregate business progress report

In business computer information systems, a dashboard is a type of graphical user interface which often provides at-a-glance views of key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to a particular objective or business process. In other usage, "dashboard" is another name for "progress report" or "report" and considered a form of data visualization. In providing this overview, business owners can save time and improve their decision making by utilizing dashboards.

Real-time business intelligence (RTBI) is a concept describing the process of delivering business intelligence (BI) or information about business operations as they occur. Real time means near to zero latency and access to information whenever it is required.

Operational intelligence (OI) is a category of real-time dynamic, business analytics that delivers visibility and insight into data, streaming events and business operations. OI solutions run queries against streaming data feeds and event data to deliver analytic results as operational instructions. OI provides organizations the ability to make decisions and immediately act on these analytic insights, through manual or automated actions.

Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, and practices for iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods. In contrast, business intelligence traditionally focuses on using a consistent set of metrics to both measure past performance and guide business planning. In other words, business intelligence focusses on description, while business analytics focusses on prediction and prescription.

In-database processing, sometimes referred to as in-database analytics, refers to the integration of data analytics into data warehousing functionality. Today, many large databases, such as those used for credit card fraud detection and investment bank risk management, use this technology because it provides significant performance improvements over traditional methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Cognos Analytics</span> Business intelligence suite

IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is a web-based integrated business intelligence suite by IBM. It provides a toolset for reporting, analytics, scorecarding, and monitoring of events and metrics. The software consists of several components designed to meet the different information requirements in a company. IBM Cognos Analytics has components such as IBM Cognos Framework Manager, IBM Cognos Cube Designer, IBM Cognos Transformer.

The term is used for two different things:

  1. In computer science, in-memory processing (PIM) is a computer architecture in which data operations are available directly on the data memory, rather than having to be transferred to CPU registers first. This may improve the power usage and performance of moving data between the processor and the main memory.
  2. In software engineering, in-memory processing is a software architecture where a database is kept entirely in random-access memory (RAM) or flash memory so that usual accesses, in particular read or query operations, do not require access to disk storage. This may allow faster data operations such as "joins", and faster reporting and decision-making in business.

Agile Business Intelligence (BI) refers to the use of Agile software development for BI projects to reduce the time it takes to show value to the organization in comparison to other approaches. It helps in quickly adapting to changing business needs. Agile BI enables the BI team, business people or in general stakeholders to make better business decisions, and to start doing this more quickly.

Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations automate repetitive tasks and consolidate multi-channel interactions, tracking and web analytics, lead scoring, campaign management and reporting into one system. It often integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) and customer data platform (CDP) software.

In the fields of Information Technology (IT) and Systems Management, IT operations analytics (ITOA) is an approach or method to retrieve, analyze, and report data for IT operations. ITOA may apply big data analytics to large datasets to produce business insights. In 2014, Gartner predicted its use might increase revenue or reduce costs. By 2017, it predicted that 15% of enterprises will use IT operations analytics technologies.

Warehouse execution systems (WES) are computerized systems used in warehouses and distribution centers to manage and orchestrate the physical flow of products from receiving through shipping. Warehouses are storage facilities for raw materials and parts used in manufacturing operations; distribution centers (DCs) are facilities that store and distribute finished goods to retail locations, consumers, and other end customers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logi Analytics</span>

Logi Analytics, Inc. is a computer software company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, United States with offices in the UK and Ireland. It offers interactive data visualization products for business intelligence and business analytics. On April 7, 2021, Logi Analytics, Inc. was acquired by insightsoftware.

An intelligence engine is a type of enterprise information management that combines business rule management, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to form a unified information access platform that provides real-time intelligence through search technologies, dashboards and/or existing business infrastructure. Intelligence Engines are process and/or business problem specific, resulting in industry and/or function-specific marketing trademarks associated with them. They can be differentiated from enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in that intelligence engines include organization-level business rules and proactive decision management functionality.

References

  1. "Analytic Applications". Gartner.