Running head: THE NEW FRONTIER: DATA ANALYTICS

The New Frontier: Data Analytics

Jessica Figuereo
Strayer University
Dr. Richard Brown
July 14, 2015

THE NEW FRONTIER: DATA ANALYTICS

The New Frontier: Data Analytics

Why do businesses need data analytics? What purpose does data analytics serve? Why do
businesses consider big data analytics to be so important? These are just a few of the questions
that will be answered in this paper. Data analytics is based on how to improve different aspects of
a business. Businesses use input from their customers to see what they like and dont like. What
they would like to see more of and try to incorporate that data into their business to make it more
successful. In order to understand how businesses do this, we need to know what data analytics
is.
Data Analytics
What is data analytics? Referred to as big data analytics, it is defined as the process of
examining big data to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations and other useful information
that can be used to make better decisions (SAS, unk). Some of the things that data analytics
determine are why businesses are losing customers, what is the benefit of using social media, what
products customers like and dont like, etc. The facts that businesses are looking for are hidden in
their systems and they need a way to get to it. This is what data analytics does. Agile analytics
allow a business to achieve big results by encompassing: big data technologies, Continuous
delivery, and advanced analytics. Big data technologies select tools and techniques needed to
handle data. Continuous delivery, deliver business value early and often. Finally advanced
analytics apply sophisticated statistical techniques to extract actionable knowledge
(ThoughtWorks, 2015).
Advantages and Disadvantages of Data Analytics

THE NEW FRONTIER: DATA ANALYTICS

Just like with anything else there are advantages and disadvantages, even with data
analytics. Also when dealing with business you have to know the pros and cons of everything that
is implemented. Then decisions need to be made whether the advantages outweigh the
disadvantages. If they do then it is a good bet to implement, if not then businesses have to
explore other options to make their business successful. Lets take a look at some of the
advantages and disadvantages of data analytics.
Advantages
There are many advantages to using data analytics. Data analytics helps businesses
determine what to upgrade, how to market to specific customer bases, what to invest in, and how
to keep and build their customer base. Data analytics can improve services, keep businesses upto-date on their competition, increases sales, help make improvements, and on the spot
notification when something is wrong. Errors can be detected instantly so that companies can
react and mitigate quickly (Rijmenam, 2015). Businesses can stay up-to-date on what the
competition is doing by getting notified the moment their direct competitor is changing strategy
or lowering its prices (Rijmenam, 2015). Data analytics can prove useful in improving services
and increasing profits by monitoring the products that are used by its customer, it can proactively respond to upcoming failures (Rijmenam, 2015). Other advantages include
implementing safeguard systems so if someone attempts to hack into an organization the business
in notified immediately (Rijmenam, 2015). Saving on cost is another advantage, although the
initial implementation cost can be expensive, it will save the business money in the long run.
There are many other advantages of using data analytics that can help with business
improvements, but as with anything there are disadvantages as well.

THE NEW FRONTIER: DATA ANALYTICS

Disadvantages
Where there are advantages, there are disadvantages that come along with me. Lets take
a look at some of the disadvantages of data analytics. A few disadvantages are difficulty
acquiring appropriate data, lack of trained staff, reluctance to invest, not knowing where to start,
uncertain benefits and costs of audit, and concerns about false positives (Wang, 2014).
Sometimes when a company wants to implement something new to improve their business it can
require new software, hardware, new processes, etc. This can be a hindrance, for instance: Data
analytics requires special computer power, a different approach of how to do business
(Rijmenam, 2015). Most employees are stuck in their ways and sometimes do not want to learn a
process of how to conduct business when receiving updates every second or minute rather than
once a week. There are other obstacles when implementing data analytics into the process as
well.
Obstacles
In order for data analytics to be successful, there are a few obstacles that need to be
overcome. A business must be able to know data quality, understand the process, quality
assurance, performance, coming up with the solution, acceptance of change, and of course the
cost. Even with data warehousing implemented, the quality of the data can still be compromised
due to missing information, inconsistency, duplication, etc. Training will help overcome the
obstacle of understanding the process, if you do not know what data analytics is and how it
works, you will not achieve the results you are looking for. Personnel acquiring and analyzing
data need to ensure quality assurance in order to make precise decisions for improvements.
Finding the right data analytics solution for your organization can be an obstacle as well. While

THE NEW FRONTIER: DATA ANALYTICS

the finalized product can be customized to fit the performance needs of the organization, the
initial overall design must be carefully thought out to provide a stable foundation from which to
start (Wentzlaff, 2015). Cost is probably one of the biggest obstacles there is, as it has been
mentioned before the cost of implementing such a solution can be expensive. Although it is
expensive to implement it will save money in long run, so this decision lies with the organization
to decide if the benefits outweigh the risks.
Analyzing Data Analytics
The solution chosen by this organization is OpenText Big Data Analytics. It has many
features that would be beneficial for this organization. Why has OpenText Big Data
Analytics been chosen? OpenText Big Data Analytics optimizes company-wide
resources. It rapidly integrates heterogeneous, multi-source data and prepares it for easy
analysis with advanced analytics tools. It's a self-service model that gives users full
autonomy to easily work with data on the fly, extract maximum value and be able to
respond effectively to key business questions (Open Text Corp, 2015).
Speculation
The main thing to speculate when dealing with dealing with data analytics is to determine
how long of a shelf life each trend has. Data Analytics is looking towards long term, not
necessarily just ten years in advance, but 50 years ahead. Business when they need to revisit each
trend in order to keep information relevant. If businesses consider all these aspects then using
data analytics in their everyday process will be very beneficial.

THE NEW FRONTIER: DATA ANALYTICS

References
Tawei Wang1, t., & Cuthbertson, R. b. (2014). Eight Issues on Audit Data Analytics We Would
Like Researched. Journal of Information Systems, 1-14.
Rijmenam, Mark van (2015). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Real-Time Big Data
Analytics. Retrieved from https://datafloq.com/read/the-power-of-real-time-big-data/225
ThoughtWorks, Inc. (2015). Big Data Analytics: How an agile approach helps you quickly realize
the value of big data. Retrieved from http://www.thoughtworks.com/big-data-analytics
SAS (unk). Big Data Analytics: What it is and why it matters. Retrieved from
http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/analytics/big-data-analytics.html
Wentzlaff, Austin (2015). 7 challenges of implementing a big data & analytic solution. Retrieved
from http://www.cuinsight.com/7-challenges-of-implementing-a-big-data-analyticssolution.html
Open Text Corp (2015). OpenText Analytics. Retrieved from http://birtanalytics.actuate.com/whyopentext-big-data-analytics