Business analytics moves into broader mainstream adoption in APAC
ConvergenceAsia staff
20/10/2009

Market research and analysis firm IDC’s latest research reveals that the competitive value of business analytics – a set of technologies and processes that encompasses data warehousing, Business Intelligence (BI) tools, and advanced analytics – is increasing in the Asia Pacific region.

Philip Carter, Associate Practice Director for IDC's Business Analytics practice in Asia/Pacific says, “Over the years, organisations have spent a lot of time and money on capturing and storing data as part of large-scale data warehousing projects. Moving forward, companies need to start developing this data into real 'intelligence' by offering it to a broader spectrum of users, as well as leveraging forward-looking predictive analytics to drive competitive advantage in the market where there is a potential recovery in the short-term.”

According to IDC, the move of Business Analytics into broader mainstream adoption in Asia Pacific can be attributed to three key drivers:

- Business intelligence has become more pervasive. The performance, availability, and user interfaces of BI solutions in the market have improved significantly over the years. This enables deployment of decision support and automation functionality to a broader spectrum of users. In turn, it has raised the visibility of BI across various departments and most importantly, at the boardroom level, which has helped to break down the “information silos” that tend to persist in organisations moving down this path.

- The CFO's office has been one of the key stakeholders in the evolution of Business Analytics; the finance department is starting to see the benefits of budgeting and planning tools as part of a broader performance management framework to drive operational efficiency throughout the organisation.

- More advanced and sophisticated forms of analytics solutions such as risk management, resource optimisation, and demand forecasting are actively being implemented by certain organisations in the region. Some of these deployments are embedding components of the analytical functionality into operational applications in what IDC sees as early signs of a shift towards its vision of Intelligent Process Automation – enabling front-office employees with better decision-making power to direct increase revenue and cut costs.

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