Business analytics tools rationalise large volumes of business data, enabling busi- nesses to uncover trends in their processes, detect inefficiencies and compara-tively analyse different data sets from different processes, business divisions and business risks to improve performance, says global business analytics firm SAS Southern Africa MD Desan Naidoo.

Further, business analytics systems can be deployed in a small and modular format, for example, in a specific business division or in a small or medium-sized business. These systems can be expanded as the company’s use of predictive and comparative business analytics tools increases.

“Business analytics systems provide comparative analysis and reporting that enable financial officers and process managers to ask new questions by easily comparing different functions and processes of the business with each other to identify waste and potential efficiency gains and directly compare results to recent and historical customer demand,” he says.

Financial officers, executives and operations managers can customise their analyses and visualisations to gain the required insight to ensure efficiency across the business.

This continuous and real-time view of profitability and business operations is especially valuable to smaller businesses that may have less capacity to absorb business losses and that may have smaller customer bases, notes Naidoo.

“Companies are no longer married to their service providers and all businesses must continuously ensure competitive pricing and efficiency to maintain and retain business.”

Visualisation – making graphs and images from data comparisons – is an effective way for users to understand vast data sets and extract meaning from corporate data.

Further, the ease with which users can drag and drop different analysis models and data sets to compare them with each other means that users can use the program to investigate various business processes and their relations, improving their understanding of the business’ functions, he adds.

“Companies should start using business analytics systems. The real-time feedback and broad capabilities of such systems, for example, warn of potential outages, manage maintenance functions and provide risk management, which will enable businesses to ensure profitability. These systems remove the reporting delay that can cause businesses to operate inefficiently during the period prior to the report being given to management,” highlights Naidoo.

Modelling
Companies are increasingly using their data and business analytics engines to model different business and process scenarios and to determine customer trends and strategy, says Naidoo.

Company data can thus be used directly to determine business trends, customer purchase patterns and business risks, enabling companies to segment customers, streamline marketing campaigns and forecast company performance against several variables and in different scenarios.

SAS is based in Kerry, North Carolina, in the US. It provides consultation on its business analytics systems to businesses of all sizes and specifically supports smaller users of its systems by providing them with statistical expertise to gain valuable insights from their data. It also advises larger companies on how to customise its systems for their individual large-scale business environments.