A recent Forbes
article explains the various ways in which big data is used within the business
field, and in the finance sector in particular. The CFO of SAP, Peter David,
explains how he believes big data analytics allows his company to make better
decisions and identify various patterns that become useful for analyzing the
company. In addition, he explains the three capabilities of data and analytics
that when followed properly can lead to better decision making for businesses.
The first
main point addressed in this article is the financial patterns that the SAP
team uses when analyzing Big Data analytics. This includes: projecting cash
requirements by using forecasting methods fueled by the trends found in the
past, analyzing the collections history in order to “allocate resources to the right customer segments and regions,” as
well as finding patterns of customer discounts. This is important to note
because it explains how the different sectors of business, including IT and
data analytics, are integrated with other divisions, such as finance. All
of the different patterns found lead to the “finance function’s ability to steer, control, and develop the
business.” In a Harvard Business Review article written by Dominic Barton and
David Court, the relationship between big data analytics is used in connection
with various other business segments as well, for example marketing and
customer relationship management. I think it is extremely important to realize
how integrated big data is in the business industry. Secondly, the Forbes
article points to the Harvard Business Review to note the different
capabilities that company’s must posses to take full advantage of data
analytics for the benefit of their company. They must be able to identity and
manage different types of data, build models to analyze outcomes of findings,
and be able to transform their company in a way that the data will result in
better business decisions. I found this interesting because it points to the
capabilities that the company itself must possess in order to profit from the
use of data. It is left up to the company to decide how to use these large
amounts of data to their advantage, or not. Lastly, the article notes the importance
of harnessing the big data that every organization already possesses. Without
the proper strategy and tools, the big data that has been gathered for so many
years will be of little to no use if it is not properly exploited to make
better business decisions.
This article does not go into full detail depth regarding the ways in
which the SAP organization uses data analytics for better decision making as a
whole, but rather it focuses on the finance sector itself. It also does not
discuss the ways in which they harness and use the data, although it mentions
how important this is for every organization. Lastly, it could have given
examples of the business decisions that have resulted from the use of big data
analytics.
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