The CTO Forum-Sybase ‘Enterprise Analytics Roundtable’ engaged and informed more than 50 CIOs on the application of business intelligence solutions.

It is often said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. This is even truer for enterprise IT managers who face the double-edged sword of cutting costs even while strategising for growth. However, there is one solution that lets them do both—Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Analytics (BA).

By implementing BI solutions, CIOs can not only help improve enterprise productivity, but also aid and abet growth by delivering insights to the sales and marketing function. These and other such issues were discussed, debated and deliberated at the ‘Enterprise Analytics Roundtable’ for CIOs.

The event was jointly organised by CTO Forum and Sybase, and drew over 50 CIOs from four cities—Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai. As a run up to the roundtable, CTO Forum had conducted a nation-wide survey to understand the usage of technology and issues related to BI and BA. The fndings were shared at the roundtable.

Study results
The survey revealed that the rapid increase of data volume and data sources among enterprises had added to the demand for adhoc queries and reporting. The survey also found out that while companies were mainly using analytics to monitor and manage their business, access to intelligence was limited to a few— top level management, and departments like fnance, accounting, marketing and sales.

“Just in time information and the ability to take decisions instantly is what business users desire. In challenging times, where changes are happening at the speed of light new products are coming and the markets are changing, so you need to have the ability to crunch data very fast and you need to be able to look at different dimensions that are getting created due to business opportunities,” says Sumesh Mahendra, Vice President, Business Intelligence, IFFCO-TOKIO.

The interactive roundtable was designed to provide insight on how BI solutions can be leveraged within the enterprise, and also provided tips that could help CIOs in the implementation process.

Mixed Opinion
“Analytics is a key area that every business, especially in the fnancial and banking sector, are looking at seriously. It is important from both business and risk perspectives. With regard to the ING Vysya bank, we look at Business Analytics as an important tool to retain customers, service them well and keep a tight check on anti-money laundering practices,” said Dharmaraj Ramakrishnan, Head, Core Banking Unit at ING Vysya Bank.

Talking about the need for smarter analytics, Chase Hacker, Senior Technical Evangelist (Asia Pacifc) at Sybase said, “On account of the growing competition, organisations need faster, more accurate answers delivered to all their decision-makers from all their information sources.”

He further added that businesses not only lose market share and competitive advantage, they also lose opportunity because decision-makers don’t always get the right answers and very often the answers are drawn from incomplete information.

But there were counter views too. V Subramanian, CISO, IDBI Bank, thinks, “Business Intelligence and Analytics is certainly overhyped. We are ourselves taking time to get convinced on the return on investment. Also, there is a lack of ‘Proof of Concept’ which can tell us about the tangible benefits of adopting BI solutions. A transparent analysis of pros and cons will help in taking a decision.”