
By Bill Szybillo | Article Rating: |
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December 18, 2015 11:45 PM EST | Reads: |
4,651 |

Today, organizations have so much data at their disposal. This data includes company, customer, product, employee, and more... much more. The problem is that without the proper tools, mid-market companies often struggle with turning this information into meaningful and actionable insights. In a time where information is power, how can companies exploit their information assets to achieve a strategic advantage over the competition?
Queue analytics.
Analytics help mid-market companies seize, manage, and harness actionable insights for business analysis by uncovering existing patterns across the business. Analytics identifies things such as what is most profitable or unprofitable and why, which customers spend more and why, and which employees are the most productive - all information that is crucial to a company's success.
While a successful analytics program can yield many benefits, a poorly planned and implemented program can hurt your company in terms of productivity, profits, and customer service.
Here are three common mistakes mid-market companies make when implementing analytics, and best practices on how to avoid them:
Mistake 1: Not Knowing What Information You Want To Analyze
Every company has customer and enterprise data that's ready for analysis. But where do you begin? While analytics helps break down data into smaller, digestible pieces, it's useless unless you know what to do with that information. Detailed data certainly helps with drill-down analysis, but it doesn't provide necessary insight to make informed decisions and produce action without a plan in place. Without knowing what you want to accomplish through analytics, companies are just left with an enormous amount of detailed data simply displayed in another format, which is no easier to interpret than before.
Best Practice: Have a plan in place before implementing analytics, identifying what information is most useful to the company. By outlining goals for analytics programs prior to implementation, analytics can help sort through the clutter of data to identify the fragments most useful to the pre-determined goals. Begin with identifying what trends your organization wants to uncover. Do you want to know which vertical and regional sectors are most profitable? Do you want to see which products have the highest demand? Linking analytics to business outcomes can help keep analytic efforts relevant and justifiable.
Mistake 2: Not Going Through Proper Training
Staff training is a critical part of implementing analytics programs but frequently doesn't get the attention it deserves. Training is often spared because organizations don't view it as important as getting the analytics software installed. What organizations fail to see is that not putting the proper emphasis on training often leads to confusion down the road because employees don't fully understand how analytics can automate key processes and tasks for them. Companies need to remember that understanding how the system works overall and getting comfortable working with the system takes considerably longer than a one day class.
Best Practice: Offer multiple mandatory training sessions for your staff to learn the software in detail before the implementation is live. This will not only help staff get a better handle on the program's benefits, but will help instill the importance of using the tool daily to get the best data. One thing we've seen help organizations with the implementation process is having a "quick start" guide prepared before the implementation process begins. This guide can be a useful resource for pre-implementation questions that could otherwise be easily overlooked. Remember that in the long run, the quality of the training an organization provides is a major factor in the success of the analytics program.
Mistake 3: Trying To Do Too Much At Once
While analytics helps turn company data into digestible chunks, companies need to be careful not to jump in head first. Trying to accomplish multiple objectives at once can leave a gigantic model, which can further complicate analysis when trying to blend historical data with real time information. For example, five years of sales history has limited context with current on hand inventory quantities, so trying to digest multiple sources of factual information without context can skew results.
Best Practice: Don't be tempted by everything analytics can do. Instead start small. Once you've determined the top things you want to achieve out of your analytics program, focus on your analytic program's report authoring tool. Utilizing filtering concepts, advanced expressions, visualizations, and sortation presents information in a consistent manner that makes collaboration easier. This also allows you to refine access to the data that's most useful and appropriate to your objectives.
Access to accurate, meaningful information has never been more vital to grow revenue, protect margins, and improve profitability. Analytics provides companies with tools that can improve overall service, gain a clear picture of revenue and profitability, and control costs - allowing organizations to excel among the competition. If companies take the time and resources to properly plan their analytics implementation, they gain the ability to harness actionable insight not only to obtain competitive advantage, but a better bottom line.
@ThingsExpo - The World's Largest 'Internet of Things' Event, June 7-9 2016 at New York City's Javits Center!
All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades.
@CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2016 New York
(June 7-9, 2016, Javits Center, Manhattan)
@CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2016 Silicon Valley
(November 1-3, 2016, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo, June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be.
Register for @CloudExpo/@ThingsExpo 'FREE' Before Friday! ▸ Here
Delegates to @ThingsExpo will be able to attend 14 simultaneous, information-packed education tracks.
There are over 120 breakout sessions in all, with Keynotes, General Sessions, and Power Panels adding to three days of incredibly rich presentations and content.
Join @ThingsExpo conference chair Roger Strukhoff (@IoT2040), June 7-9, 2016 in New York City, for three days of intense 'Internet of Things' discussion and focus, including Big Data's indespensable role in IoT, Smart Grids and Industrial Internet of Things, Wearables and Consumer IoT, as well as (new) IoT's use in Vertical Markets.
Your conference registration includes all 14 @CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo Tracks:
01 @CloudExpo: Enterprise Cloud Adoption
02 @CloudExpo: DevOps, Continuous Delivery and APIs
03 @CloudExpo: Mobility & Security
04 @CloudExpo: Containers & Microservices
05 @ThingsExpo: Big Data's Use in IoT & Analytics
06 @ThingsExpo: Smart Grids & Industrial 'Internet of Things'
07 @ThingsExpo: Show Me the Money! - IoT Developer Track
08 @ThingsExpo: Wearables & Consumer IoT
Hot Topics - Day 1:
09 @ThingsExpo: Vertical 'Internet of Things' Markets
10 @ThingsExpo: Identity in IoT, RTC & WebRTC
Hot Topics - Day 2:
11 @ThingsExpo: Node.js & Event-Driven Architecture
12 @ThingsExpo: Modern Data Centers
Hot Topics - Day 3:
13 @CloudExpo: Cognitive Computing / Machine Learning
14 @CloudExpo: Maker Movement
Register FREE Before Friday! ▸ Here
A General Session, November 3-5, 2015 in Silicon Valley
@CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2016 New York
(June 7-9, 2016, Javits Center, Manhattan)
@CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2016 Silicon Valley
(November 1-3, 2016, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
Speaking Proposals Open
Fourth International @ThingsExpo, co-located with 18th International @CloudExpo - being held June 7-9, 2016 at the Javits Center in New York City, announces that its Call for Papers for speaking opportunities is open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the most profound change in personal and enterprise IT since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago.
Submit your speaking proposal today! ▸ Here
Sponsorship Opportunities Open
@ThingsExpo, June 7-9, 2016 at the Javits Center in New York City, is co-located with 18th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world.
Sponsor and Exhibit at @ThingsExpo ▸ Here
Download Show Prospectus ▸ Here
Show Me The Money!
How We Built and Scaled an IoT Platform and Business
In his keynote at @ThingsExpo, Chris Matthieu, Director of IoT Engineering at Citrix and co-founder and CTO of Octoblu, focused on building an IoT platform and company. He provided a behind-the-scenes look at Octoblu's platform, business, and pivots along the way (including the Citrix acquisition of Octoblu).
Download Chris Matthieu Keynote Slide Deck: ▸ Here
@ThingsExpo Named the World's Most Influential IoT Media Brand
@ThingsExpo has been named the Top Most Influential Internet of Things'Media Brand' by Onalytica in the ‘The Internet of Things Landscape 2015: Top 100 Individuals and Brands.'
Onalytica analyzed Twitter conversations around the IoT debate to uncover the most influential brands and individuals driving the conversation.
Intel and Cisco have been named the world's most influential IoT brands, followed by SYS-CON Media's global IoT event, @ThingsExpo as the world's most influential IoT media brand. [continued]
New York and Silicon Valley Sponsors and Exhibitors
During our last New York and Silicon Valley events, over 12,000 (audited) delegates registered and participated at @ThingsExpo, in the world's largest 'Internet of Things' event, colocated with @CloudExpo. Our conference delegates met with over 160 of the world's leading technology pioneers that were among the sponsors and exhibitors, including:
Our Demo Theater on the Expo Floor attracts more delegates than the entire conference of other events
Acision, Actifio, ActiveState, AgilePoint, AIC , Akana, AlertLogic, Ambernet, Amplidata, Apacer Memory America Inc., Appcore, AppDynamics, AppZero, Aria Systems, Arista Networks, Automic, Avere Systems, Axis Communications, B2CLOUD, Basic6, Bestwebdesignagencies.com, Bitium, Blue Box , BMC, BroadSoft, Brother , Bsquare, BUMI, CA, Inc., Calm.io, CenturyLink, Ciqada, CiRBA, Cisco, Cloudant, an IBM Company, Cloudian, CoalFire, CodeFutures, COLUMN Technologies, CommVault, connect2.me, Connected Data, CrashPlan/Code42, Creative Business Solutions , Cynny Italia S.r.l, Dasher, dcVAST, DEAC, Dell, DevOps.com, Distrix , DragonGlass, Dyn, Edgecast , ElasticBox, Emcien, Endstream Communications/Open Data Centers, EnterpriseDB, e-SignLive, by Silanis, Esri, Evident.io, FierceDevOps, FireHost, Genband, Gigamon, GoodData, Gridstore, Harbinger Group , IAPP, IBM, IDenticard Access Control, Imperva, IndependenceIT, Infor, InMage, Innodisk, Intelligent Systems, Isomorhpic , ITinvolve, iwNetworks, Ixia, iXsystems , Jelastic, Kintone, KOTRA , Liaison, Litmus Automation, MangoApps, Matrix.org, MediaTek Labs, MetraTech (now part of Ericsson), Microsoft, Navisite, Net Access , Nimble Storage, NuoDB, Inc., Objectivity, OMG, Open Data Centers, OpenCrowd, Optimal Design, Oracle, OutSystems, Parasoft, Peak10, Peer 1 Hosting, PluralSight, Plutora, ProfitBricks, PubNub, Quality Technology Services , Quantum, Qubell, RackWare , Rancher Labs, Red Hat, r-evolutionapp , RingStor, Robomq.io, SafeLogic, SAP, ScaleMP, Seagate, Secure Infrastructure & Services, Sematext , SendGrid , Serena Software, Sherweb, SimpleECM, Site 24x7, Smartvue Corporation, SOASTA, SoftLayer, an IBM Company, SoftwareAG, Soha, Solgenia, SPAN Systems, Spirent, StackIQ, Stateless Networks, Storpool, Stratogent, Stratoscale, Supermicro, SUSE, Tau Institute, Telecity, Telehouse, Telestax, The New York Times , The Vision Times, TierPoint, TMCnet, Transparent Cloud Computing Consortium, Tufin, Ulunsoft, Utimaco, VASCO Data Security, Veeam, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Vicom Computer Services, VictorOps, Virtustream, VITRIA Technology, Vormetric, WHOA.com, Will Jaya, Windstream, WSM - Website Movers International, Zentera Systems, Zerto.
New York City June 2015 Expo Floor
Silicon Valley November 2015 Expo Floor
@CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo Has Been a Must-Attend Event for Ericsson
This week, the team assembled in NYC for @Cloud Expo 2015 and @ThingsExpo 2015. For the past four years, this has been a must-attend event for MetraTech. We were happy to once again join industry visionaries, colleagues, customers and even competitors to share and explore the ways in which the Internet of Things (IoT) will impact our industry. Over the course of the show, we discussed the types of challenges we will collectively need to solve to capitalize on the opportunity IoT presents. [continued]
About SYS-CON Media & Events
SYS-CON Media (www.sys-con.com) has since 1994 been connecting technology companies and customers through a comprehensive content stream - featuring over forty focused subject areas, from Cloud Computing to Web Security - interwoven with market-leading full-scale conferences produced by SYS-CON Events. The company's internationally recognized brands include among others Cloud Expo® (@CloudExpo), Big Data Expo® (@BigDataExpo), DevOps Summit (@DevOpsSummit), @ThingsExpo® (@ThingsExpo), Containers Expo (@ContainersExpo) and Microservices Expo (@MicroservicesE).
Cloud Expo®, Big Data Expo® and @ThingsExpo® are registered trademarks of Cloud Expo, Inc., a SYS-CON Events company.
Published December 18, 2015 Reads 4,651
Copyright © 2015 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
More Stories By Bill Szybillo
Bill Szybillo joined VAI in 2011. In his position of Senior Business Intelligence Developer, he is responsible for the successful implementations of S2K Analytics, the company's Business Intelligence solution. He also conducts corporate analytics webinars, and educational sessions at VAI Conferences.
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