Foreword xi

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xxv

PART I The Revolution Has Begun 1

Chapter 1 Understanding Operational Analytics 3

Defining Operational Analytics 4

Welcome to Analytics 3.0 10

How Analytics Are Changing Business 20

Putting Operational Analytics in Perspective 26

Wrap-Up 30

Notes 31

Chapter 2 More Data . . . More Data . . . Big Data! 33

Cutting through the Hype 33

Preparing for Big Data 39

Putting Big Data in Context 48

Wrap-Up 58

Notes 59

Chapter 3 Operational Analytics in Action 61

Improving Customer Experiences 62

Time Is of the Essence 68

Making Us Safer 71

Increasing Operational Efficiency 74

Improving Our Lives in the Future 77

Finding Unexpected Value in Data 79

Wrap-Up 83

Notes 84

PART II Laying the Foundation 87

Chapter 4 Want Budget? Build the Business Case! 89

Setting the Priorities 89

Choosing the Right Decision Criteria 93

Business Case Framework to Consider 101

Tips for Creating a Winning Business Case 108

Wrap-Up 115

Notes 116

Chapter 5 Creating an Analytic Platform 117

Planning 118

Building 123

Using 140

Wrap-Up 143

Notes 145

Chapter 6 Governance and Privacy 147

Setting the Stage for Governance 148

Deciding Where Analytics Happen 154

Governing Operational Analytics 158

Privacy 165

Wrap-Up 172

Notes 173

PART III Making Analytics Operational 175

Chapter 7 The Analytics 177

Creating Operational Analytics Processes 177

Expanding into New Analytics Disciplines 181

Focusing Analytics Efforts 187

Comparing Analytics Approaches 193

Lessons from the Past 198

Wrap-Up 204

Notes 205

Chapter 8 The Analytics Organization 207

A Major Shift Has Occurred 207

Staffing 209

Organizing 218

Succeeding 225

Wrap-Up 234

Notes 235

Chapter 9 The Analytics Culture 237

Instilling the Proper Mind-set 237

Implementing Effective Policies 245

Facilitating Success 250

Enabling and Handling the Right Failures 256

Wrap-Up 261

Notes 262

Conclusion Join the Revolution! 263

About the Author 267

Index 269

Praise for The Analytics Revolution

"Realizing significant, sustainable benefit from data and analytics is becoming more of an organizational change management initiative than a technology project. In The Analytics Revolution, Bill Franks uses his experiences as a practitioner in the trenches and a consultant in the C-suites to help leaders gracefully move their organizations to a game-changing level of analytic value."
—Kathy Koontz, Associate Vice President, Customer Insights and Analytics, Nationwide

"If you are an executive, you need this book. While the standard fare of most books on analytics is—understandably—a technical 'geek out' session, the enterprise leader must instead gain view of the full landscape of analytics value, strategy, and process, as well as a map of pitfalls and how they're best avoided. The Analytics Revolution brings this landscape into clear view."
—Eric Siegel, founder of Predictive Analytics World and author of Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die

"This book is a must-have for professionals who want to effectively use big data to free companies to innovate. Bill precisely captures the most imperative incoming wave of the big data revolution, which is operationalizing decision making processes by using data in a massive scale, but not making data-driven decisions only at the strategic level. This is great news for business!"
—Simon Zhang, Senior Director, Business Analytics, LinkedIn Corp

"Data and analytics don't create value until they change how something is done. Operational analytics is that change—on a scalable and repeatable basis—and Franks provides a roadmap for how to succeed with it."
—Blake Johnson, Consulting Professor, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University

"Organizations are understanding that Big Data and Analytics can provide a competitive advantage and are clamoring for information on making this promise a reality. In The Analytics Revolution, Bill Franks provides a practical guide for making analytics operational and a cornerstone of organizational decision making. Bill's expertise and passion for the topic shines as he explains this revolution, steps for implementation, and pitfalls to avoid. Business leaders will appreciate Bill's ability to demystify this important yet misunderstood topic."
—Jack Levis, Senior Director of Process Management, UPS

"I thoroughly enjoyed Bill's latest book. In The Analytics Revolution, Bill once again demonstrates his rare ability to take a complex, technical topic, and convey what is truly essential to every senior business manager. As Bill so effectively articulates, the analytics revolution is underway and promises to fundamentally change how business operates. This is not an IT practitioner's guide—rather, it is a primer for the seasoned business manager. It cuts through the hype and informs the manager of what he or she must know to operationalize analytics within the company's business processes."
—Mark A. Van Sumeren, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Owens & Minor, Inc.

The ability to instantly adapt to changing conditions is the key to success in today's marketplace. The Analytics Revolution shows you how you can integrate insights from the analysis of data, both big and small, into your daily operations. The analytics revolution is already here, and it aims to make analytics embedded, operational processes instead of external, batch processes. Airlines use analytics to prioritize and reroute passengers in real time. Banks constantly analyze account activity patterns to prevent and detect fraud. Users' social media and e-commerce experiences are customized based on up-to-the-second information. You can implement similar capabilities, and the first step is to understand what the analytics revolution is all about and how to join it.

Bill Franks has built his career on a talent for explaining complex analytics to business audiences. In The Analytics Revolution, you'll learn how to cut through the clutter and leverage the trends and processes that will keep you ahead of your competitors. In this book, Bill uses his characteristic clarity to guide you through the process of building teams, creating culture, updating analytics methodologies, and leveraging technology to evolve your organization to operational analytics.

The Analytics Revolution shows exactly what making analytics operational means for you and how to start evolving your organization toward using operational analytics for better, faster, more effective decision making. Written in a style that's accessible to anyone, regardless of background, The Analytics Revolution provides a scalable framework for embedding analytics within all sorts of business processes. This book is for managers and business leaders looking for a way to keep up and move ahead by building a foundation of analytics on which an organization can thrive.