KATHMANDU, NEPAL: Business Analytics (BI) assumes even more important significance in decision making in these uncertain times, says Ashit Panjwani, Director, SAS India. Speaking at the C- Change 2009 today, Panjwani said Indian tops the list when it comes to getting analytical information from Google with Mumbai topping the list followed by Delhi and Chennai. He said with economies contracting, the traction for BI will grow over the next few years.

"If you are not analysing the information, you are not creating any intelligence of information. Brands which were on top are now collapsing or have collapsed and processes which had helped you to go ahead many not help in these tough times.

"The need of hour to do more with less resource. Adapt analytics into your key processes and people. Technology has failed because people have not been taken into consideration and getting integrated into process.

"The key is to innovate, optimise and transform. Innovation entails creating environment where you create a culture of innovation."
Panjwani, added that organisations need to ask two questions: "What else or how else. What else we will be doing that will impact our company and what else should I be doing, current set of activities which will drive efficiencies."

"BI takes customer experience to a different level. It is not a project, which can be done once and forgotten. It is a continuous process at adding intelligence into systems."
Highlighting the need of BI, he said by 2010 information will double after eleven years, which in 2006 doubled in 11 months.

"Data deluge is so huge that you cannot spot patterns. Survey done in matured markets shows that 42 percent of CIOs felt that the biggest challenge came from handling the deluge of information. Thirty-nine percent are not sure which information is correct and about the quality of information, and 38 percent of CIOs felt they need to weed excess information and shockingly twenty percent don't know the value of information that they have."

He added that 70 percent of data is today in unstructured form and the challenge is to create intelligent analysis of unstructured information. How are you going to do that analysis around that.

He also highlighted the difference between platform and framework strategy saying that framework analysis allowed short term quantifiable ROI.
Organisations have over the time invested in various systems and data is residing is in various systems. The challenge is how to guarantee the veracity of the information and get systems to talk to each other and analyse the information.

"Business Analytics is the best way possible, said Panjwani as it allows you to forecast, quantify the data and put your company in an advantageous position. Forecasting is a challenge. How to do that and what is needed to be done. BI provides you solution to these problems," he concluded.