I am working with the folks at B-eye Network and sponsors Oracle, SAS, Aha!, Adaptive and Fuzzy Logix on some research - Business Analytics: Putting Analytics To Work.There is growing interest in the power of analytics, especially predictive analytics, to improve business operations. The use of data mining and analytic techniques in operational systems is moving beyond its early adopter base in financial services and into the mainstream. As companies adopt business analytic techniques they struggle with the balance between using these techniques to improve reporting and dashboards ("Predictive Reporting" as it is sometimes called) and using them to improve systems and thus every individual transaction ("Business Analytics" or "Decision Management"). A clear understanding of what business analytics are, how to use them, and the compelling business value of doing so is called for. Hence the research.

The study will describe business analytics and what should you expect from a business analytics vendor. It will discuss the motivation for adopting business analytics and how you should approach the evaluation of business analytics as well as how business analytics fit within an enterprise and business architecture. It will discuss risks and issues and describe the benefits and challenges based on real customer experience. Finally it will discuss the kinds of decisions that will show a positive return on business analytics and how business analytics can change businesses fundamentally.

All in all it should be a lot of fun to write and I am looking forward to completing it. In the meantime you can help by taking the survey - http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22A3HRGXRBS.

Look for the report in a couple of months on BeyeResearch.