Business analytics is on the verge of taking over the world, including your company, warns Yankee Group founder Howard Anderson. Every unit in your organization, from human resources, to marketing, to operations, will want to use the software, so CIOs should be prepared.

The lion's share of analytics innovation today is in the realm of business-to-consumer (as in, how to know who buys what when). With the tools available to make sound "micro-decisions," companies can increase profits, Anderson writes in a post at InformationWeek. Where IT plays the most important role is in delivering clean, distinctive data. Companies will want collaboration among their many silos of data, and they will turn to the IT group to make that happen.

"Progressive Insurance found that if it looked at people's credit scores, it could find who it should and should not insure--the higher the score, the less likely the potential customer would have a costly fender bender. Just the way that Harrah's can know that if you haven't shown up at one of its casinos in two months, it's better off baiting you with $50 in chips than a free room," Anderson writes.

Predictive analytics has edged its way into the old business intelligence arena, and now neural computing may offer even deeper insights. Companies that make decisions based on facts and patterns will have a great advantage over those that continue to make decisions based on intuition, Anderson cautions.

For more:
- see Howard Anderson's post at InformationWeek

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