ABSTRACT
The most common and expected functional benefi ts of deploying functional analytics do impact related aspects of the business, such as better design of portfolios, better understanding of consumer behaviour, responding to changes in consumer tastes more quickly, product portfolio optimization, intervening to prevent employee attrition, and re-negotiating with suppliers against changed marketplaces. Top benefi ts
that could also be derived include effi cient choice making, better alignment of available resources with short-term business goals, realizing cost savings, meeting user needs, etc. Meeting regulatory compliance and sharing information with external users (e.g. customers and suppliers) are also enabled. To simplify the variety of impacts that are sustained, the business can mainly reduce costs, improve the bottom line, and manage risk. When decision making is automatically delegated and transferred downwards, the benefi ts of transparency, simplicity, and a unifi ed picture is made available to all users in a company. To make these possible, companies need to invest in functional infrastructure by creating specialized divisions with competencies that provide core analytics as a managed service to the rest of the business. Such outcome measures capture the extent to which a problem exists and should provide an indication of the extent to which actions taken by the business are successful. A more effective approach is to start with the problems or opportunities faced by the organization and develop an understanding of what information is likely to be useful. An understanding of these problems permits organizations to determine effectively the analytics that are most likely to be useful in improving organizational effectiveness. The difference in these two approaches is dramatic. The latter is targeted at specifi c decisions situations while the former does not have this focus.
