Running head: BUSINESS ANALYTICS 1

Running head: BUSINESS ANALYTICS 1

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Business analytics are the technologies, practices and skills that are used by businesses and organizations to evaluate and explore their performance. Every business has an aim of being successful in terms of; registering high sales, providing quality customer service among other service deliveries. There are many challenges that stand in the way of organizations implementing business analytics in their operations. Many business owners and managers do not have the slightest of ideas about business analytics. For this reasons some businesses that have managers who do not have information on business analytics as a method of evaluating business performance may not use it. Additionally, there exists other external factors that act as hindrances to organizations not using the business analytics method to evaluate their progress in business.

Economic conditions of the surrounding environment may act as a limiting factor for many businesses not to use business analytics method. Since every business has a goal of being successful, they would weigh the prevailing economic conditions. If the conditions are unfavorable, it is most likely that a business would not use the business analytics in the evaluation of their businesses. That is in contrary to when the economic conditions are favorable.

In my working environment, my company manager was at first not familiar with the business analytics method of business evaluation. The company was performing well but making minimal progress. However, with the use of business analytics, the company would have made more progress that can be categorized as significant. Managers with little or no knowledge on business analytics can act as setbacks to the success of any business.

Maidenform and Bravissimo are two companies that have benefited greatly from the use of the business analytics tools. The two companies are major manufacturers of women underwear. The maidenform company which has reportedly been one of the major companies using the business analytics tools for a period of time. The tools that are entailed in business analytics have enabled the company to get access to a lot of information concerning their business and products to their customers. Information is an important tool for any business to be successful. For this reason the company has been able to improve on its performance based on the information gathered using the business analytics tools. The ability to make decisions by the company management has also been improved greatly, courtesy of business analytics tools. Business analytics tools enables organizations to monitor the performance of other companies, mostly, their competitors. For this reason, Maidenform company has been able to monitor their competitors performance and compare them with their own. Therefore, Maidenform has been able to shift their efforts to their weaknesses in order to minimize or eliminate them completely.

The move has given the company a competitive advantage over its competitors and the market in general. Bravissimo company being in the same manufacturing industry and being a manufacturer of women’s underwear, also used business analytics in its business evaluation and monitoring. The company incorporated the system into their office management tools. The business analytics tools used were used for the purpose of prediction of weather. Weather prediction helped the company on making decisions on the type of women wear to manufacture during changes in weather. Since the incorporation of the business analytics tools, the company has benefited greatly. Just like Maidenform, Bravissimo has a competitive advantage over other women wear manufacturers and is top ranked in the market place.

In another totally different industry, Plantronics is another company that used business analytics in the operations of the business. Through the use of business analytics, Plantronics was able to incorporate dashboards. These dashboard gave a better and graphical view of the market opportunities that were available to them. The dashboard tools were used for the smooth running of the company by the company managers to make decisions on how the resources should be allocated in various department especially the sales department so as to improve their performance. Additionally the dashboards created had more importance than just help the managers in decision making. Plantronics used the dashboard tools to help them identify viable business opportunities. They would then focus to invest in those businesses that were beneficial and profitable to the company. In using business analytics tools the company was able to save them money and more time. A lot of money and time was refocused on the more profitable business opportunities.

In implementing business analytics in a business, there are challenges that are faced in the process. Among the challenges that the Plantronics company faced was staffing. Before implementing the business analytics tools, the company did not have expert staff to deal with the tools of business analytics. For this reason the company was faced with the challenge of hiring new staff that had the expertise to handle business analytics. Hiring of new staff was followed by increased expenses for the new employees hired.

Despite the business analytic tools being effective in the long run, many organizations and businesses do not use the tools for fear of taking a long period to be effective. The Plantronics company is one of the many companies that was faced with the challenge of deciding whether to use the business analytics tool. Since the company started using business analytics it did not take long before realizing the results.

Additionally the company was faced with the problem of government policies. The prevailing government policies at the moment the company was implementing business analytics in their business were not favorable. The policies affected the economic conditions in which the company was operating within. For this reason, the company was faced with the challenge of using business analytics. Using the method to measure the performance of the business needed extra capital which was an additional cost to the company. In addition, the unfavorable conditions made it expensive for the company to operate normally. Hence, using the method at that moment was a burden to them.

Many businesses according to researchers have been successful due to the use of business analytics in monitoring the progress of a company. The method has continually been used by growing companies. Therefore it has been a popular method of analyzing the performance of businesses. Despite the many challenges that may be faced in the process of implementing business analytics, many businesses are risking to use it. For this reason the method has gained worldwide popularity by businesses which have the aim of providing quality products and services and at the same time gain the market advantage over their competitors.