the analytics edge

And so it goes…trying to define the word ‘analytics’. Well, maybe we can start off by agreeing that we won’t agree, as James Taylor says. But try we will.

This is predictable, and was evident more than two years ago when the term was just beginning to be picked up by mainstream marketing minds. With the aging of the “BI” term and the changing landscape in the industry, the players need new magic phrases to get a piece of the lucrative IT spending priorities (full disclosure: yes, I work for one of them and I want some of it, too). We have probably all heard that analytics are an enabler in high performing organizations, and books like Competing on Analytics are reinforcing the point in the executive ranks.

Marketing knows what that means — they may not say it outright, but their unspoken desires are building. Every competent executive is uncomfortable with what the future may bring. They need information to make decisions, and they see the word ‘analytics’ popping up in the business press. They don’t try to define it, but they start to feel positive towards it. The more they see it bandied about by others, the more they are attracted to it, and their very own marketing VP is probably talking about things she’s learned from the web analytics.

If someone, like the CIO, picks up on an opportunity to use a buzzword to fix a dwindling budget, then an investment in ‘analytics’ has been born. It could be anything, so long as you can stretch the term to fit the actual spend in some way. Now, I am not suggesting people invest in unnecessary projects just because they used some fancy buzzwords, but anyone that’s been in the IT leader position knows you need to drop those words to get over the resistance hurdle for the projects that the business does need. Once the project starts, vendors pick up on the new ‘analytics’ investment, and they use the same technique: drop the words to get over that initial resistance.

So, should we define ‘analytics’? Absolutely NOT! Leave it as wishy washy as we can get it, and leave the door open to interpretation. Everyone wins! The CEO gets to brag about his new investment in analytics, the CIO gets his project budget approved, the vendors….we get past the gatekeepers to talk to the people that matter.

[oh, and NextAnalytics actually does sell a product that does ‘analytics’ :-)]