Earlier this quarter IBM has released Business Analytics Enterprise to meet the demands of data-driven businesses in the new era. The software suite includes IBM Planning Analytics with Watson, IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson and the new Analytics content hub.
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In this report, we’ll cover all of the latest Business Analytics Enterprise features and how this solution fits into the bigger picture of breaking down data silos and creating better analytics solutions for data-driven businesses.
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The challenges of becoming data-driven
Forrester’s 2022 reportThe State Of The Insights-Driven Business, shows that while advanced insight-driven organizations are 1.6 times more likely to differentiate themselves within the market, companies still face many challenges as they try to become more insight-driven driven.
Supply chain disruptionseconomic slowdown and the need to adapt quickly — coupled with unpredictable global events, labor and skills shortages, and growing regulatory complexity — are hampering many digital transformation opportunities and putting businesses at risk.
In addition, while most companies have migrated to the cloud or have hybrid cloud environments, data silos still exist between internal and external corporate networks, partners and teams.
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So being data-driven in this new era requires more than central data platforms for mission-critical operations. The use of artificial intelligence, a robust data culture, and the unification and extension of all tools to create an enterprise-wide data analytics system are fundamental.
Dinesh Nirmal, general manager of data, AI and automation at IBM, believes that one of the most effective solutions to these data problems is to rectify access to data analytics tools.
“To be truly data-driven, organizations need to provide their various teams with greater access to analytics tools and a more complete view of their business data, without compromising their compliance, security or privacy programs,” said Nirmal. “IBM Business Analytics Enterprise provides a way to bring analytics tools together in a single view, regardless of which vendor it comes from or where the data resides.”
IBM Business Analytics Enterprise: what it can do
IBM Business Analytics Enterprise is IBM’s latest solution for delivering more widely accessible data analytics functionality to business users. It is designed to let users view planning and analytics dashboards from multiple vendors, including tools such as IBM Cognos Analytics, IBM Planning Analytics, and other widely used business intelligence tools.
The solution integrates data and assets into a single view and features custom dashboards that can be customized to a business’s needs. It also has built-in algorithms that can recommend role-based content to help users surface new stories, reports, and dashboards from across the organization to aid in decision-making processes.
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With the IBM suite, users can now consider multiple scenarios and seasons in their trend forecasts, using the AI-powered BI solution and its integration with Cognos Analytics with Watson.
The main goal of the new technology is to break down silos and drive collaboration between teams and partners by delivering the right data at the right time. Businesses can seamlessly share data and reporting across departments, avoiding the risks that arise when multiple solutions are disconnected. Throughout the enterprise, IBM ensures that quality, accessibility, consistency, usability and security are built into the software.
Key features of Business Analytics Enterprise
- No-code dashboard for discovering, personalizing and recommending business analytics from multiple vendors
- Combined reporting, data integration and predictive analytics
- Data mining for real-time organizational planning, reporting and forecasting
- Talent pipeline management
- Cleanse and visualize data
- AI-driven analytics
- Continuous and integrated scheduling with managed and managed workflows
IBM designed its new software considering the key challenges facing data platforms, including data unreliability and control, and management, compliance and cybersecurity issues. The company also considered the widespread shortages of skilled data science talentadopt a no-code approach to facilitate accessibility and use for its customers.
IBM Analytics Content Hub: Making business analytics work better together
IBM compares the way organizations manage their data to a video game, in which most companies run single player modes and each department or team plays its own ‘game’. This causes several problems.
As data flows through an organization, format changes, internal migration, data verification, and shifting responsibilities can cost businesses valuable time and resources. In addition, as long as each data platform is connected, it becomes its own silo and confusion can arise as each silo adapts to the needs of individual departments.
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By the time data reaches the “boss” level, where data needs to be turned into actions, data needs to be reassessed, qualified and filtered according to “fit for business” standards. The data silos previously created by different departments make it challenging for executives to determine whether the data set before them is accurate and complete.
To solve this single-player problem that many organizations face with their data, IBM created the IBM Analytics Content Hub as a “multiplayer” approach. The company’s multiplayer mode is a vision that allows users to combine insights from all the different BI tools they use. It creates a centralized curated dashboard with elements from each department.
Key features of IBM Analytics Content Hub
The Analytics Content Hub can:
- Create a clean streaming experience for visualization.
- Get content from IBM and other providers such as Microsoft, Google, and Tableau.
- Enable collaboration between multiple users so they can provide feedback and score quality across all content.
- Provide single sign-on and other security support.
The future of data-driven companies
As new technologies develop and global socioeconomic factors shift, companies are turning to new ways to manage their data. Some technology companies have not adapted their solutions to meet these changing customer expectations, but IBM continues to evolve to meet the demands of the ever-changing data-driven era.
IBM Business Analytics Enterprise is designed to eliminate silos and provide full visibility at all times support for security and compliance, empower employees at all levels and encourage quick yet effective solutions. Particularly for companies looking to increase collaboration between their employees and departmental silos, this new software suite offers a potential solution to become more data-driven at scale.
