Home > Articles

This chapter is from the book

1.6 Capitalizing on Business Analytics for Building a Winning Global Strategy

While leading economies (e.g., U.S., Germany, United Kingdom) in Europe and North America gradually lost their economic clout due to their stagnant domestic markets for the past decade, emerging economies (e.g., China, India, Brazil) in Asia and Latin America have begun to flex their economic muscles thanks to their rapid population growth and increasing purchasing power. To cope with this economic power shift, a globalization of business activities has become a norm for many companies. A typical rationale for going global includes the following: (1) the expansion and diversification of customer bases; (2) the extension of product life cycles due to a possibility that established but waning products in one market can turn into hot-selling products in another overseas market; (3) spreading financial and market risks across the countries; (4) less competition in untapped but emerging foreign markets; (5) cost-saving opportunities in low-cost countries. Despite the aforementioned benefit potential, an entry into a foreign marketplace can bring a myriad of unforeseen risk, uncertainty, and headaches. For instance, since business customs and customer behavior would differ from one country to another, marketing strategy has to be tailored toward each local market. Laws and regulations governing business activities will vary from one country to another, and thus business activities can be further constrained with few options. Due to a geographical dispersion, the cost of logistics will be higher and a supply chain associated with the global flow of goods and services will be stretched further with a greater complexity. In a global marketplace, a margin for error would be small due to unfamiliarity with local practices and business culture. That is to say, business success in a global marketplace rests heavily on the firm’s ability to make a right strategic decision based on the right information at the right time. Such ability can be enhanced by the smart use of big data (namely, business analytics). Thus, the role of business analytics in a global business setting is greater than in a domestic setting. This means that the exploitation of business analytics should be embedded within global business strategy.

Despite a growing significance of business analytics to global business success, the recent SAP survey reported that a mere 27% of U.S. firms had a plan for the use of business analytics or any form of business intelligence tools, and only 13.5% of the surveyed firms used business analytics on a daily or ongoing basis (Primault 2012). A lack of business analytics application may be attributed to the user’s unfamiliarity with this tool, unproven benefits, implementation cost concerns and hassles, internal resistance against the adoption of a newly introduced tool, and a difficulty in leveraging it as the competitive differentiator. To overcome these hurdles, the potential users of business analytics should identify key success factors and then formulate business analytics implementation strategy as part of their global business strategy. Figure 1.2 displays a list of key success factors for business analytics.

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.2 Success pillars of business analytics.

The details of key success factors are described here:

  1. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure: Valuable data cannot be captured, stored, and analyzed without the support of computer systems (both hardware and software), multimedia communication tools, and analytical tools. As such, proper investment in such supporting systems (i.e., ICT infrastructure) is essential for the successful use of business analytics. Since both overinvestment and underinvestment can hurt the business bottom line, in that the former will lead to wasted resources, and the latter will limit ICT capabilities, a careful investment strategy should be developed by involving all the affected parties and users who will share the cost and benefit of the ICT investment.
  2. Database Management System (DBMS): DBMS is the system software that enables the users and programmers to create, store, retrieve, modify, update, and manage data in an organized fashion. Without the DBMS, the business analysts cannot get access to data and lose the opportunity to interact with data to extract meaningful information. Also, the DBMS gives the business analysts a chance to maintain the concurrency, security, privacy, integrity, and relevancy of collected data. Furthermore, as the central storage of data, the DBMS allows its users to use the same data and thus obviate the potential confusion and inconsistency emanating from multiple data sources.
  3. Data Discovery Governance Policy: The companies are becoming increasingly serious about the notion of “data as an asset” as they face increasing pressure for reporting a “single version of the truth.” In a 2006 survey of North American firms that had deployed business analytics, a program for the governance of data was reported to be one of the five success factors for deriving business value from big data (Khatri and Brown 2010). As such, one of the important prerequisites to business analytics is to develop disciplined rules and clear guidelines as to who will be collecting data, which data should be collected, who will be responsible for monitoring and measuring data quality, and how data will be collected, stored, and maintained to ensure its integrity and security.
  4. Business Analytics Platforms: Business analytics can be powered by many different choices of platforms provided by various IT vendors (e.g., Oracle, SAP, HP, IBM, and Cloudera). These different platforms come with different functionalities, different cloud options, different levels of memory and stream-analysis capabilities, and varying data processing power. Thus, a caution should be exercised in selecting multiple platforms. This caution includes the establishment of specific selection criteria (e.g., architecture, query engine, security, scalability, disaster recovery) and the integration plan of utilizing multiple platforms complementing each other.
  5. Knowledge Management: After insights are gained through business analytics, those will be the sources of the company’s knowledge properties for a long time to come. To keep them as the valuable assets and leverage them as the competitive differentiator, the knowledge has to be classified in terms of its content and format and managed accordingly. In addition, the company should ensure that knowledge properties will not be lost or released to its rivals during knowledge-sharing activities.
  6. Continuous Improvement: No competitive advantage will be permanent, since it is a relative concept. Likewise, a competitive edge created by business analytics cannot be sustained forever, unless more timely, more accurate, and deeper insights are created through the continuous upgrade of business analytics tools and their supporting mechanism. Thus, it is necessary to build the closed-loop framework containing “plan, do, act, check, and improve” cycles of business analytics application.

As discussed previously, the best way to maximize business analytics is to incorporate it as part of the global business strategy and then develop specific action plans for its successful implementation.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020