Reporting, Predictive Analytics, and Everything in Between

This report is for anyone who deals with data: analytics leaders, business professionals, data analysts, data scientists, IT personnel, and product developers. It is aimed at technical as well as nontechnical audiences who have some familiarity with analytics and business intelligence (BI). For simplicity’s sake, we use the term business manager to refer to anyone doing, or having input into, an analytics evaluation.

Business managers (or anyone) who are either contemplating or planning a data analytics initiative face a bewildering array of options. These range from deciding among different analytics platforms, to reporting systems, to determining how to deploy analytic components in streaming and embedded systems. A manager who has little technical expertise needs guidance not only in what to select, but, more important, what to consider when making data analytics decisions. Even a technically oriented manager, one with expertise in data and computer systems, needs guidance because the options are fluid and constantly being developed and expanded. Keeping abreast of analytic developments is difficult even for them.

Both groups—those with little technical expertise and those who have some—need help understanding their options. Typical questions include the following:

• What are the features and characteristics of the different analytical options?

• Why does the business need this capability and what will be the expected ...