The rapid generation of massive amounts of data in a variety of formats has brought about the creation of "big data", which businesses have to understand and make use of, said Mr Tim Phillips.
|
Creating New Opportunities and Competitive Edge through Business Analytics - this was the theme of the Business Analytics Seminar & Exhibition which was organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) on 31 May 2012.
With business analytics becoming a key focus for organisational growth in both private and public sectors, the seminar brought together leading end-user companies to share how it has helped them to make strategic business decisions.
In his presentation on Strategic Applications for Business Analytics, Mr Tim Phillipps, Global Managing Partner of Deloitte Analytics, Deloitte, spoke about the “post-digital enterprise” where businesses have to deal with the convergence of cloud, internet, mobility and social media. The rapid generation of massive amounts of data in a variety of formats has brought about the creation of “big data”, which businesses have to understand and make use of. Business analytics will provide them with the tools to mine and understand this wealth of data for valuable insights, he said.
At the end of the day, analytics has to be about extracting value and making the organisation more efficient and competitive. This point was illustrated by Dr Tan Lin Tze, Head of DHL’s Solutions & Innovation Unit’s City Logistics initiative in Singapore, who spoke about the use of analytics to enhance business operations at the logistics company.
In a vehicle energy reduction programme that was piloted recently, DHL used analytics to monitor and analyse how its drivers were driving the trucks - from acceleration and braking to idling. The data was collected and analysed to see how driving behaviour affected fuel usage. Subsequent interventions such as driver training and the introduction of incentives led to a 12 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency. DHL also uses analytics to optimise route planning and vehicle usage, and to improve carbon efficiency through carbon counting and the development of a carbon dashboard.
Dr Tan Lin Tze, Head of DHL's Solutions & Innovation Unit's City Logistics initiative in Singapore, spoke about the use of analytics to enhance business operations at the logistics company.
|
Examining analytics from the customer relationship management (CRM) perspective, Mr Mike Sherman, Head, Centre of Excellence, Customer Knowledge and Business Intelligence at SingTel, spoke about the “4Ts” that guide the CRM vision - targeted, tailored, timely and tested. Analytics enables organisations to move from mass markets or broad segments to more targeted micro-segments, and from a single product-driven value proposition to multiple value propositions tailored to customers’ needs, he said. It also enables organisations to be more timely in their communications, reaching out to customers only at key decision points. Finally, the application of analytics has to be tested through a continuous process of experimentation, learning and improvement.
The confluence of CRM and analytics also changes the way organisations look at the results of a marketing campaign, said Mr Sherman. “Traditionally, you would ask - did the marketing campaign work or not? In the new world of analytics, you ask ‘Who did it work for?’” This helps focus the analytics discussion on revenue opportunities for the organisation rather than the tools involved, he said.
Another speaker at the Business Analytics Seminar was Mr Dheeraj Motwani, Industry Analyst, Travel & Tourism, Southeast Asia, Google, who gave a presentation on Web and Social Analytics. He discussed how organisations can leverage web and social media analytics to mine the wealth of information in cyberspace in order to enhance their visibility and their engagements with their communities and customers. Key influencers, identified from a social network through social analytics, can be engaged by organisations to help improve the organisations’ products, services, and brand awareness.
Mobile and Spatial Analytics also came under the spotlight when Mr Brendan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer of ThinkSmart Technologies, spoke about the exponential growth in the use of smart phones with positioning capabilities. This allows organisations to unlock the potential of location awareness intelligence to discover user profiles for targeted customer engagements. In addition, crowd movements can be mined to help in floor plan optimisation and crowd control.
The Business Analytics Seminar & Exhibition, which was held at the Raffles City Convention Centre, received overwhelming response that was attended by more than 550 participants from the public and private sectors. The event also featured analytics solutions from over 25 companies that showcased the various Business Analytics technologies.