FEATURE: ANALYTICS
Thierry Nicault, Executive Vice President,
Middle East, Africa and Central Europe,
Salesforce, said when Middle East
organisations are deploying analytics,
they should not do it as a one off project
but rather integrated into a wider Digital
Transformation roadmap.
Nicault said while CEOs are highly
knowledgeable about the potential for
analytics, they should also work with vendors
and channel partners to understand how
analytics can meet business goals, identify
the right software solutions and develop the
KPIs that can be reviewed consistently.
“Re-skilling and up-skilling workers for
new and different roles during and postpandemic
is a priority for many UAE
and Middle East organisations and
employees,” he said.
Benefits of analytics
With enterprises in the Middle East
deploying analytics in their IT environments,
what are some of the benefits of analytics
and how can organisations deploy the
technology to ensure success?
Rakesh Jayaprakash, Product Manager,
ManageEngine, said besides the obvious
benefit of bringing organisation-wide
visibility, an important function of analytics
is to aid with informed decision-making.
Jayaprakash explained that traditionally,
analytics was thought to be a glorified
version of reports that people are all used to,
but options such as running what-if scenarios,
predictive analytics and ability to display rolebased
metrics sets analytics apart.
“Before making decisions that involve
process level changes that are aimed at
increasing productivity, decision makers can
feed parameters into analytics applications,
visualise outcomes and compare the
outcomes with desired results. This helps in
addressing minor pitfalls early on, before
decisions are made and can potentially save
a lot of man-hours and rework,” he said.
Gathering data from applications used by
various departments also involves a human
aspect: convincing department heads to
allow access to applications they use to run
their day-to-day activities.
Jayaprakash added that: “CIOs should play
a lead role in getting individual departments
onboard and make them realise the vision
of bringing organisation-wide visibility using
analytics platforms.
Heriot-Watt University Dubai’s Hamdan
agreed with Jayaprakash and said in today’s
complex business environment, the field of
data analytics is growing in acceptance and
importance, and it is playing a critical role as
a decision-making resource for executives,
especially those managing large companies.
“Corporations are moving to use Big Data
and analytics to track consumer sentiment,
build customer loyalty, gain competitive
advantages and make more effective
business decisions. A business can use data
to create a customised shopping experience
for customers, prompting a website to
suggest products that customers are likely to
purchase,” he said.
For decades, those armed with the
business intelligence class of analytics
tools in the Middle East have plumbed
financial and logistical databases to
identify new business opportunities,
flag weaknesses and gain competitive
advantage. More recently, with the addition
of Machine Learning to identify patterns in
data, analytics is proving scarily accurate at
predicting future outcomes.
In the age of analytics everywhere, that
should be welcome news for organisations in
the region, especially when augmented by
Machine Learning, the insights derived from
analytics will play an increasingly strategic
role in steering enterprises going forward. •
Dr Mohammad Mahmoud Hamdan,
Associate Professor of Computer Sciences,
School of Mathematical and Computer
Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Dubai
CIOS SHOULD PLAY A LEAD ROLE IN
GETTING INDIVIDUAL DEPARTMENTS
ONBOARD AND MAKE THEM
REALISE THE VISION OF BRINGING
ORGANISATION-WIDE VISIBILITY USING
ANALYTICS PLATFORMS.
www.intelligentcio.com
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