Customer Analytics Greetings from Las Vegas (Part 2)

Is customer analytics simply gambling at a slightly higher level?FROM CHRISTOPH OGGENFUSS*At first part I have summarized the evolution of analytics over the last 15 years. In particular, the most recent development with so-called prescriptive analytics deserves a closer look, as the benefits are becoming increasingly tangible. In the final statement, I state that customer analytics has now become a strategic business reality. In the second part, I describe further trends and highlights of the conference.The democratization of analyticsIn the early years of the business application of analytics, these methods were reserved for absolute experts. Ideally, they had a degree in statistics or physics in order to be equipped for these tasks. It is not really surprising that the evaluated results often appeared abstract and unfamiliar to the business. The expert analytics then gradually became business analytics, because the business departments wanted to exert direct influence. With the appointment of power users, the need was met. Today, we are at a point where the corporate boundaries regarding analytics are being broken down. Consumers now have access to evaluation tools that enable them to perform analyses themselves. Mobile analytics in particular plays an important role here. The era of "personal analytics" or "quantified self" is beginning!Is this development risk-free? Certainly not, because even if the analysis tools become suitable for mass use, it is still not certain that the analysis will be correct and that the results will be interpreted correctly. But the socialization of analytics cannot be stopped.Big Data: most underhyped, Social Data most overhypedFor months, the trade press has been puzzling over whether Big Data is a bubble that will soon burst, and whether the bubble is over. The head of IBM, Ginni Rometty, spoke about this a few days ago in the USA and described Big Data as the "most underhyped business topic". Is this just optimism, because IBM has been investing heavily in this topic for several years? In my opinion, not at all - Big Data is a robust trend and we are only in the first third of the development that we will see in the coming years.With "IBM Watson", the company has created the largest start-up in the world. For this forward-looking project, 2000 employees were brought together in New York:Watson is a cognitive technology that processes information more like a human than a computer-by understanding natural language, generating hypotheses based on evidence and learning as it goes.IBM Watson is about interacting with adaptive computers via voice control. We can look forward to the first results of this experiment.Amazon now also a major IT providerAmazon's diversification strategy outside of books and CDs is well known. What is less well known is that Amazon also offers cloud storage and has recently been included in the Gartner Data Warehousing Magic Quadrant, where established IT companies such as Oracle, Teradata, SAS and Microsoft are represented. This example makes it clear that competition based on technological developments such as social, cloud, big data and mobile can transcend industry boundaries and make traditional business models obsolete. This example alone makes the disruptive (destructive) power of new technologies comprehensible.The race for the attractive places in the future competition has started. Lasting competitive advantages are increasingly becoming a rare commodity. In the increasingly digital world in which we find ourselves, companies are well advised to follow the following trilogy: "faster - easier - smarter".What dynamics can be expected in the field of analytics in the near future?1. from enterprise IT to business IT to personal IT (bring your own device, bring your own application, etc.)2. from centralized to "on premise" to cloud-based3. From "deferred time" to "real time "I deliberately repeat myself with this final statement: With the latest development, customer analytics has definitely become a strategic corporate reality - Chief Marketing Officers are challenged to take advantage of the opportunities and prove to the CEO that the allocation of resources in marketing was correct.