Business Intelligence Dies, Business Analytics Lives
March 28, 2009
The SAS marketing and public relations machine shifted into high gear in the last two weeks. I received some news releases, and I have seen references to various new SAS initiatives, including the almost obligatory shift to a cloud option for SAS customers. The cloud and Software as a Service are positive steps for vendors of certain types of complex software. Licensees of some complicated systems can’t afford the headcount needed to configure and maintain these brain busters.
The most interesting article I saw referencing SAS was Kathleen Lau’s “Analytics Versus Intelligence” here. The key point in this SAS-centric write up is that business intelligence is a gone goose (no reference to the goslings here in Harrod’s Creek). The future belongs to business analytics. The statement in the write up that bolstered this assertion in wordsmithing was:
Gaurav Verma, global marketing manager for business analytics with SAS, said customers have to deal with ever-diverse and complex business issues, and are demanding tools with a short return on investment that enable “proactive, predictive, and fact-based decision-making.” Using the word “framework” and not “platform,” said Davis, reflects the fact that the latter implies two to three years of implementation and an over-shot budget, a scenario that organizations must avoid. But a framework “implies an iterative approach” that renders a faster return on investment. “The reality is, the framework becomes the platform over time,” said Davis, referring to a company’s ability to leverage existing investments.
Okay, I think I see the difference, but will customers? More important to me is that I have found that organizations are pushing back against hugely complex systems that are tough to understand and even more difficult to measure in concrete financial payback.
My hunch is that SAS may be on the front edge of traditional number crunching software vendors who find that the old formula no longer works. Business analytics, if I read Ms. Lau’s article correctly, may be the new wonder drug, designed to cure revenue and competitive pains.
Stephen Arnold, March 28, 2009
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