The Analytics Revolution

CHAPTER 3 Operational Analytics in Action

In this chapter, we turn our attention to a variety of examples of operational analytics in action. The examples make it clear that, in the future, an organization's focus won't simply be on more of the same old analytics but rather on different analytics that are being applied in new ways. The analytics that organizations have been implementing for years are now becoming table stakes in more and more industries and settings. Organizations will find it necessary to expand beyond traditional batch analytics in order to succeed in the future. In other words, they'll have to start making analytics operational.

One of the most important shifts that operational analytics help an organization to make is to enable it to become highly proactive in its actions. In some cases, the analytics are quite sophisticated. In other cases, the analytics are very basic. The examples in this chapter cover the entire range. However, the common thread is that operational analytics help an organization to be proactive rather than reactive. Instead of responding as issues arise, operational analytics usually aim to avoid problems altogether. Where it isn't possible to avoid problems, operational analytics aim to deal with problems that arise quickly and automatically.

Let's now explore a number of examples, some basic and some fancy, to illustrate operational analytics in action. The examples are ordered loosely by subject area and the level of sophistication ...