Wiley and SAS Business Series – serie

Transform data into action for competitive advantage "The knowledge assets of an organization are becoming increasingly important for competitive advantage, and therefore, the way in which knowledge is created, renewed, and communicated is critical. This book provides practical insights into how this may be achieved through the establishment of a Business Intelligence Competency Centre and is a valuable read for 'information professionals.'"--Bill Sturman, Information Architecture Project Manager The Open University, United Kingdom "BI is more than technology and projects. BI must live in the organization--as a BICC. This book helps to make BI tangible and understandable, bringing it to life."--Miriam Eisenmann, Project Manager (PMP) CSC Ploenzke AG, Germany "This book is a must-read for planning and implementing your BICC. It is a pragmatic guide that addresses a lot, if not all, of the questions you'll be asking yourself. Don't miss out on getting a head start from the people who thought this through from start to finish . . . Pray your competitors don't get hold of this book!"--Claudia Imhoff, President Intelligent Solutions, Inc., USA "Creating a BICC forces the organization to focus on the importance of centralizing the gathering, interpreting, and analyzing of information to create business insight."--Anne Ulyate, Group Manager Business Intelligence Mutual & Federal, South Africa "BI is a highly visible element in the 'business value' trend for IT investments. Initiatives, such as competency centers, should empower user organizations to drive even more value out of their BI investments."--Marianne Kolding, Director, European ServicesIDC, United Kingdom

In today's market, it takes more than good products and services to succeed. Successful marketing requires more precise segmentation and more sophisticated communications with customers--the lifeblood of every business--than ever before. Expertly explaining the components of marketing automation and their application and benefit to the marketing process, Marketing Automation shows you how to develop more effective and targeted direct marketing campaigns, from the planning and execution of promotions to the complete leveraging of marketing to increase your profits. Designed to get you quickly up to speed, you will discover:* How to evolve complex, yet agile, customer communication strategies* Ways to focus already limited marketing resources on the right opportunities* Advice on viewing, tracking, and measuring results* How to optimally use current software applications to empower you to effect stronger, more responsive marketing programs Straightforward and balanced, this essential guide presents a new and better way to strengthen your competitive position by using your precious customer data to increase your bottom line. Required reading for executives, marketing managers, and anyone needing to know the essentials of maximizing the profitability of every customer relationship for their business, Marketing Automation makes every marketing dollar count with a sound road map all executives can understand and follow.

Praise for Fair Lending ComplianceIntelligence and Implications for Credit Risk Management "Brilliant and informative. An in-depth look at innovative approaches to credit risk management written by industry practitioners. This publication will serve as an essential reference text for those who wish to make credit accessible to underserved consumers. It is comprehensive and clearly written."--The Honorable Rodney E. Hood "Abrahams and Zhang's timely treatise is a must-read for all those interested in the critical role of credit in the economy. They ably explore the intersection of credit access and credit risk, suggesting a hybrid approach of human judgment and computer models as the necessary path to balanced and fair lending. In an environment of rapidly changing consumer demographics, as well as regulatory reform initiatives, this book suggests new analytical models by which to provide credit to ensure compliance and to manage enterprise risk."--Frank A. Hirsch Jr., Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP Financial Services Attorney and former general counsel for Centura Banks, Inc. "This book tackles head on the market failures that our current risk management systems need to address. Not only do Abrahams and Zhang adeptly articulate why we can and should improve our systems, they provide the analytic evidence, and the steps toward implementations. Fair Lending Compliance fills a much-needed gap in the field. If implemented systematically, this thought leadership will lead to improvements in fair lending practices for all Americans." --Alyssa Stewart Lee, Deputy Director, Urban Markets Initiative The Brookings Institution "[Fair Lending Compliance]...provides a unique blend of qualitative and quantitative guidance to two kinds of financial institutions: those that just need a little help in staying on the right side of complex fair housing regulations; and those that aspire to industry leadership in profitably and responsibly serving the unmet credit needs of diverse businesses and consumers in America's emerging domestic markets."--Michael A. Stegman, PhD, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Duncan MacRae '09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Written for enterprise risk management (ERM) practitioners who recognize ERM?s value to their organization, Enterprise Risk Management: A Methodology for Achieving Strategic Objectives thoroughly examines operational risk management and allows you to leverage ERM methodology in your organization by putting author and ERM authority Gregory Monahan's Strategic Objectives At Risk (SOAR) methodology to work. A must-read for anyone interested in risk management as a strategic, value-adding tool, this no-nonsense book shows you how to use ERM and SOAR to empower your company to go from stuck to competitive.

Praise for Praise for Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics "A highly accessible collection of essays on contemporary thinking in performance management. Readers will get excellent overviews on the Balanced Scorecard, strategy maps, incentives, management accounting, activity-based costing, customer lifetime value, and sustainable shareholder value creation."—Robert S. Kaplan, Harvard Business School; coauthor of The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, The Execution Premium, and many other books"Gary Cokins demonstrates in this book that performance management is not a mysterious black art, but a structured, process-oriented discipline. If you want your performance management system to be a smoothly running analytical machine, read and apply the ideas in this book—it's all you need."—Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management, Babson College; coauthor of Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning"Drawing on a deep reservoir of knowledge and experience gained from hundreds of customer engagements around the world, Gary Cokins offers an authoritative examination of the major dimensions of performance management. Cokins not only paints a rich and textured view of the major principles and concepts driving performance management implementations, he offers a nuanced look at the important subtleties that can spell the difference between success and failure. This is an informative and enjoyable text to read!"—Wayne Eckerson, Director of Research, The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI); author of Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business"[In this] very insightful book, the view of an integrated performance management framework with a goal to link various operational activities with business strategy is an excellent approach to manage and improve business. Gary's explanation of risk-based performance management, for providing the capability to achieve long-term objectives with reliably calculated risks, is definitely thought provoking."—Srini Pallia, Global Head and Vice President of Business Technology Services, Wipro Technologies, Bangalore, India"Gary Cokins is clearly one of the world's thought leaders in the area of performance management, and the need for integrated performance management, improvement and execution is clearly at a premium in these challenging economic times. This book is a must read for CEOs, CFOs, and management accountants around the globe seeking higher levels of sustainable business performance for their stakeholders."—Jeffrey C. Thomson, President and CEO, Institute of Management Accountants

Credit Risk Assessment The New Lending System for Borrowers, Lenders, and Investors Credit Risk Assessment: The New Lending System for Borrowers, Lenders, and Investors equips you with an effective comprehensive credit assessment framework (CCAF) that can provide early warning of risk, thanks to its forward-looking analyses that do not rely on the premise that the past determines the future. Revealing how an existing credit underwriting system can be extended to embrace all relevant factors and business contexts in order to accurately classify credit risk and drive all transactions in a transparent manner, Credit Risk Assessment clearly lays out the facts. This well-timed book explores how your company can improve its current credit assessment system to balance risk and return and prevent future financial disruptions. Describing how a new and comprehensive lending framework can achieve more complete and accurate credit risk assessment while improving loan transparency, affordability, and performance, Credit Risk Assessment addresses: How a CCAF connects borrowers, lenders, and investors—with greater transparencyThe current financial crisis and its implicationsThe root cause to weaknesses in loan underwriting practices and lending systemsThe main drivers that undermine borrowers, lenders, and investorsWhy a new generation of lending systems is neededMarket requirements and how a comprehensive risk assessment framework can meet themThe notion of an underwriting gap and how it affects the lenders' underwriting practicesTypical issues associated with credit scoring modelsHow improper use of credit scoring in underwriting underestimates the borrower's credit riskThe ways in which the current lending system fails to address loan affordabilityHow mortgage and capital market financial innovation relates to the crisis

Learn to manage and grow successful analytical teams within your businessExamining analytics-one of the hottest business topics today-The New KNOW argues that analytics is needed by all enterprises in order to be successful. Until now, enterprises have been required to know what happened in the past, but in today's environment, your organization is expected to have a good knowledge of what happens next.This innovative book covers Where analytics live in the enterpriseThe value of analyticsRelationships betwixt and betweenTechnologies of analyticsMarkets and marketers of analyticsThe New KNOW is a timely, essential resource to staying competitive in your field.

An indispensable guide that shows companies how to treat data as a strategic assetOrganizations set their business strategy and direction based on information that is available to executives. The Data Asset provides guidance for not only building the business case for data quality and data governance, but also for developing methodologies and processes that will enable your organization to better treat its data as a strategic asset.Part of Wiley's SAS Business Series, this book looks at Business Case Building; Maturity Model and Organization Capabilities; 7-Step Programmatic Approach for Success; and Technologies Required for Effective Data Quality and Data Governance and, within these areas, covers Risk mitigationCost controlRevenue optimizationUndisciplined and reactive organizationsProactive organizationsAnalysis, improvement, and control technologyWhether you're a business manager or an IT professional, The Data Asset reveals the methodology and technology needed to approach successful data quality and data governance initiatives on an enterprise scale.

Learn how advances in technology can help curb bank fraud Fraud prevention specialists are grappling with ever-mounting quantities of data, but in today's volatile commercial environment, paying attention to that data is more important than ever. Bank Fraud provides a frank discussion of the attitudes, strategies, and—most importantly—the technology that specialists will need to combat fraud.Fraudulent activity may have increased over the years, but so has the field of data science and the results that can be achieved by applying the right principles, a necessary tool today for financial institutions to protect themselves and their clientele. This resource helps professionals in the financial services industry make the most of data intelligence and uncovers the applicable methods to strengthening defenses against fraudulent behavior. This in-depth treatment of the topic begins with a brief history of fraud detection in banking and definitions of key terms, then discusses the benefits of technology, data sharing, and analysis, along with other in-depth information, including: The challenges of fraud detection in a financial services environmentThe use of statistics, including effective ways to measure losses per account and ROI by product/initiativeThe Ten Commandments for tackling fraud and ways to build an effective model for fraud managementBank Fraud offers a compelling narrative that ultimately urges security and fraud prevention professionals to make the most of the data they have so painstakingly gathered. Such professionals shouldn't let their most important intellectual asset—data—go to waste. This book shows you just how to leverage data and the most up-to-date tools, technologies, and methods to thwart fraud at every turn.

A straightforward guide to the evolution, benefits, and implementation of Solvency II Providing a guide to the evolution, practice, benefits, and implementation of Solvency II, Executive′s Guide to Solvency II deftly covers this major European regulation which ensures that insurers can meet their risk–based liabilities over a one–year period to a 99.5% certainty. Part of the Wiley and SAS Business series, this book will guide you through Solvency II, especially if you need to understand the subtleties of Solvency II and risk–based capital in basic business language. Among the topics covered in this essential book are: Background to Solvency IILearning from the Basel ApproachThe Economic Balance SheetInternal ModelsPeople, Process, and TechnologyBusiness Benefits of Solvency IIExecutive′s Guide to Solvency II  has as its aim an explanation for executives, practitioners, consultants, and others interested in the Solvency II process and the implications thereof, to understand how and why the directive originated, what its goals are, and what some of the complexities are. There is an emphasis on what in practice should be leveraged upon to achieve implementation, specifically data, processes, and systems, as well as recognition of the close alignment demanded between actuaries, the risk department, IT, and the business itself.

Get your organization's expertise out of its silos and make it flow-with lessons from over a decade of experience Looking at knowledge management in a holistic way, Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow: How to Make Knowledge Sharing Work puts the proper emphasis on non-technical issues. As knowledge is deeply connected to humans, the author moves away from the often overused and therefore burned-out term "knowledge management" to the better-suited term "knowledge flow management." Provides lessons learned and case studies from real experienceDiscusses key knowledge flow components, success factors and traps, and where to startCovering topics such as the power of scaling, internal marketing, measuring success, cultural aspects of sharing, and the role of Web2.0, Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow: How to Make Knowledge Sharing Work allows you to stay up-to-date with today's knowledge flow management, and implement best practices to position your organization to take advantage of all of its assets.

Practical-nontechnical-solutions to the problems of business forecasting Written in a nontechnical style, this book provides practical solutions to common business forecasting problems, showing you how to think about business forecasting in the context of uncertainty, randomness and process performance. Addresses the philosophical foundations of forecastingRaises awareness of fundamental issues usually overlooked in pursuit of the perfect forecastIntroduces a new way to think about business forecasting, focusing on process efficiency and the elimination of worst practicesProvides practical approaches for the non-statistical problems forecasters faceIllustrates Forecast Value Added (FVA) Analysis for identifying waste in the forecasting processCouched in the context of uncertainty, randomness, and process performance, this book offers new, innovative ideas for resolving your business forecasting problems.

A timely look at effective use of social network analysis within the telecommunications industry to boost customer relationshipsThe key to any successful company is the relationship that it builds with its customers. This book shows how social network analysis, analytics, and marketing knowledge can be combined to create a positive customer experience within the telecommunications industry. Reveals how telecommunications companies can effectively enhance their relationships with customersProvides the groundwork for defining social network analysisDefines the tools that can be used to address social network problemsA must-read for any professionals eager to distinguish their products in the marketplace, this book shows you how to get it done right, with social network analysis.

Social media has already transformed society. Now it is poised to revolutionize communications and collaborative business processes. This book provides you with an actionable framework for developing and executing successful enterprise social networking strategies. Using straightforward language, accompanied by exhibits and fleshed out with real-world stories and revealing anecdotes, you will learn how to develop your own internal corporate social media strategy. Through the use of in-depth interviews with leading companies using these strategies, you will also discover best practices that will propel your business to new heights.

Praise for Performance Management "We are witnessing a convergence among advanced management concepts and practices. Performance management is a means to pull it all together, to understand the strengths and limitations of each management practice and leverage it for competitive advantage. Cokins' book walks us through all this in a manner that makes something confusing much less so.There is no one right answer for any situation. The answer lies in a balance of concepts and the integration of them. Performance Management is the glue that holds them all together.This book helps the reader understand the breadth of PM. It's not just about measuring!"—John F. Morrow, CPA, AICPA Vice President, The New Finance"Gary Cokins has articulated the '411' of performance management. His combination of personal anecdotes with fundamental cost and performance management theories provides business leaders at all levels, in any industry or profession, a solid resource for practicing their work.This book is not only an invaluable resource for those new to performance management but provides guidance, wisdom, support, and insight to all industry leaders and managers. Cokins has organized and simplified the many complex performance management theories, associated tools, and infrastructure for the reader.Buy it, read it, and give it to your colleagues—then celebrate your successes!"—Sue Swertfeger, Senior Manager, Owens & Minor

Praise for Case Studies in Performance Management "With this book, Tony Adkins has made an important contribution to the body of knowledge of managerial accounting."--From the Foreword by Gary Cokins, lead strategist, Business Performance Management Solutions group with SAS Institute and internationally recognized expert in advanced cost management and performance improvement systems "If you want to achieve direction, traction, and speed in business, Case Studies in Performance Management: A Guide from the Experts is a must-read . . . jam-packed with golden nuggets you can put to work immediately." --Jason Jennings, bestselling author of Think Big, Act Small, Less Is More and It's Not the Big That Eat the Small . . . It's the Fast That Eat the Slow "Tony has the insight found only from actual implementations of ABC/PM.Using this as lens, he has brought the collective experience of experts into focus."--Mohan Nair, author of Essentials of Balanced Scorecard and Activity-Based Information Systems "Tony Adkins has lived the life of a true ABC/PM road warrior. His collection of case studies reaches beyond the theory to capture the harsh reality of what it takes to successfully implement performance management. A must-read for anyone wise enough to learn from those who have gone before."--Chris M. Pieper, CEO, FormRouter, Inc. (former founder and CEO of ABC Technologies) "Everyone who reads this book will gain a solid appreciation of the substance and value of performance management in varied industry settings and applications."--Dr. Peter B. B. Turney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cost Technology, Inc. and author of Common Cents If you're looking for a way to dramatically improve your company's performance and get back its competitive edge, Case Studies in Performance Management: A Guide from the Experts will show you how other businesses, driven to remain competitive by changes in their industries, learned to work smarter using ABC/PM in today's tough business environment. Noteworthy commentary from experts in the field including Ashok Vadgama and Alan Stratton helps you understand ABC/PM and how to execute its sound strategies in your own business.

"Customers are the heart of any business. But we can't succeed if we develop only one talk addressed to the 'average customer.' Instead we must know each customer and build our individual engagements with that knowledge. If Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is going to work, it calls for skills in Customer Data Integration (CDI). This is the best book that I have seen on the subject. Jill Dyché is to be complimented for her thoroughness in interviewing executives and presenting CDI."-Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University "In this world of killer competition, hanging on to existing customers is critical to survival. Jill Dyché's new book makes that job a lot easier than it has been."-Jack Trout, author, Differentiate or Die "Jill and Evan have not only written the definitive work on Customer Data Integration, they've made the business case for it. This book offers sound advice to business people in search of innovative ways to bring data together about customers-their most important asset-while at the same time giving IT some practical tips for implementing CDI and MDM the right way." -Wayne Eckerson, The Data Warehousing Institute author of Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business Whatever business you're in, you're ultimately in the customer business. No matter what your product, customers pay the bills. But the strategic importance of customer relationships hasn't brought companies much closer to a single, authoritative view of their customers. Written from both business and technicalperspectives, Customer Data Integration shows companies how to deliver an accurate, holistic, and long-term understanding of their customers through CDI.

TURN YOUR CHALLENGES INTO SUCCESSES – LEARN HOW AND WHY SOME TEAM STRUGGLE AND SOME SUCCEEDThis groundbreaking resource defines what business analytics is, the immense value it brings to an organization, and how to harness its power to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Author Evan Stubbs provides managers with the tools, knowledge, and strategies to get the organizational commitment you need to get business analytics up and running in your company.Drawing from numerous practical examples, The Value of Business Analytics provides an overview of how business analytics maps to organizational strategy and through examining the mistakes teams commonly make that prevent their success, author Evan Stubbs uncovers a four-step framework which helps improve the odds of success.Built on field-tested experience, The Value of Business Analytics explains the importance of and how to: Define the Value: Link analytics outcomes to business value, thereby helping build a sense of urgency and a need for change.Communicate the Value: Persuade the right people by understanding what motivates them.Deliver the Value: Link tactical outcomes to long-term strategic differentiation.Measure the Value: Validate wins and deliver continuous improvement to help drive ongoing transformation.Translating massive amounts of data into real insight is beyond magic—it’s competitive advantage distilled. Nothing else offers an equivalent level of agility, productivity improvement, or renewable value. Whether you’re looking to quantify the value of your work or generate organizational support, learn how to leverage advanced business analytics with the hands-on guidance found in The Value of Business Analytics.Drawing on the successes and failures of countless organizations, author Evan Stubbs provides a reference rich in content that spans everything from hiring the right people, understanding technical maturity, assessing culture, and structuring strategic planning. A must-read for any business analytics leader and an essential reference in shifting the perspective of business analytics away from algorithms towards outcomes.Learn how to increase the odds of successful value creation with The Value of Business Analytics.

The inside scoop on boosting sales through spot-on analytics Retailers collect a huge amount of data, but don't know what to do with it. Retail Analytics not only provides a broad understanding of retail, but also shows how to put accumulated data to optimal use. Each chapter covers a different focus of the retail environment, from retail basics and organization structures to common retail database designs. Packed with case studies and examples, this book insightfully reveals how you can begin using your business data as a strategic advantage. Helps retailers and analysts to use analytics to sell more merchandiseProvides fact-based analytic strategies that can be replicated with the same success the author achieved on a global levelReveals how retailers can begin using their data as a strategic advantageIncludes examples from many retail departments illustrating successful use of data and analyticsAnalytics is the wave of the future. Put your data to strategic use with the proven guidance found in Retail Analytics.

Unique insights to implement big data analytics and reap big returns to your bottom line Focusing on the business and financial value of big data analytics, respected technology journalist Frank J. Ohlhorst shares his insights on the newly emerging field of big data analytics in Big Data Analytics. This breakthrough book demonstrates the importance of analytics, defines the processes, highlights the tangible and intangible values and discusses how you can turn a business liability into actionable material that can be used to redefine markets, improve profits and identify new business opportunities. Reveals big data analytics as the next wave for businesses looking for competitive advantageTakes an in-depth look at the financial value of big data analyticsOffers tools and best practices for working with big dataOnce the domain of large on-line retailers such as eBay and Amazon, big data is now accessible by businesses of all sizes and across industries. From how to mine the data your company collects, to the data that is available on the outside, Big Data Analytics shows how you can leverage big data into a key component in your business's growth strategy.

Discover the breakthrough tool your company can use to make winning decisions This forward-thinking book addresses the emergence of predictive business analytics, how it can help redefine the way your organization operates, and many of the misconceptions that impede the adoption of this new management capability. Filled with case examples, Predictive Business Analytics defines ways in which specific industries have applied these techniques and tools and how predictive business analytics can complement other financial applications such as budgeting, forecasting, and performance reporting. Examines how predictive business analytics can help your organization understand its various drivers of performance, their relationship to future outcomes, and improve managerial decision-makingLooks at how to develop new insights and understand business performance based on extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, and explanatory and predictive modelingWritten for senior financial professionals, as well as general and divisional senior managementVisionary and effective, Predictive Business Analytics reveals how you can use your business's skills, technologies, tools, and processes for continuous analysis of past business performance to gain forward-looking insight and drive business decisions and actions.

You receive an e-mail. It contains an offer for a complete personal computer system. It seems like the retailer read your mind since you were exploring computers on their web site just a few hours prior…. As you drive to the store to buy the computer bundle, you get an offer for a discounted coffee from the coffee shop you are getting ready to drive past. It says that since you’re in the area, you can get 10% off if you stop by in the next 20 minutes….As you drink your coffee, you receive an apology from the manufacturer of a product that you complained about yesterday on your Facebook page, as well as on the company’s web site….Finally, once you get back home, you receive notice of a special armor upgrade available for purchase in your favorite online video game.  It is just what is needed to get past some spots you’ve been struggling with….Sound crazy? Are these things that can only happen in the distant future? No. All of these scenarios are possible today! Big data. Advanced analytics. Big data analytics. It seems you can’t escape such terms today. Everywhere you turn people are discussing, writing about, and promoting big data and advanced analytics. Well, you can now add this book to the discussion.What is real and what is hype? Such attention can lead one to the suspicion that perhaps the analysis of big data is something that is more hype than substance. While there has been a lot of hype over the past few years, the reality is that we are in a transformative era in terms of analytic capabilities and the leveraging of massive amounts of data. If you take the time to cut through the sometimes-over-zealous hype present in the media, you’ll find something very real and very powerful underneath it. With big data, the hype is driven by genuine excitement and anticipation of the business and consumer benefits that analyzing it will yield over time.Big data is the next wave of new data sources that will drive the next wave of analytic innovation in business, government, and academia. These innovations have the potential to radically change how organizations view their business. The analysis that big data enables will lead to decisions that are more informed and, in some cases, different from what they are today. It will yield insights that many can only dream about today. As you’ll see, there are many consistencies with the requirements to tame big data and what has always been needed to tame new data sources. However, the additional scale of big data necessitates utilizing the newest tools, technologies, methods, and processes. The old way of approaching analysis just won’t work. It is time to evolve the world of advanced analytics to the next level. That’s what this book is about.Taming the Big Data Tidal Wave isn’t just the title of this book, but rather an activity that will determine which businesses win and which lose in the next decade. By preparing and taking the initiative, organizations can ride the big data tidal wave to success rather than being pummeled underneath the crushing surf. What do you need to know and how do you prepare in order to start taming big data and generating exciting new analytics from it? Sit back, get comfortable, and prepare to find out!

Get proven guidance to build a market-driven supply chain management system Supply chain management processes have gradually shifted from a supply-driven focus to a demand-driven one in order to better synchronize demand and supply signals. Bricks Matter shows you how you can identify market risks and opportunities and translate these into winning tactics. Business cases highlight how business leaders are winning through market-driven approaches. Helps you understand how to apply the emerging world of predictive analytics for the better management of value networksIncludes business cases illustrating the market-driven approachReveals how businesses can identify market risks and translate these into supply-side tacticsAs companies transition from demand-driven to market-driven approach, the focus in organizations shifts from one of vertical excellence to building strong market-to-market horizontal processes. Improve revenue by increasing market share, improve profit margins, and maintain high levels of customer service with the indispensable guidance found in Bricks Matter.

Employ heuristic adjustments for truly accurate analysis Heuristics in Analytics presents an approach to analysis that accounts for the randomness of business and the competitive marketplace, creating a model that more accurately reflects the scenario at hand. With an emphasis on the importance of proper analytical tools, the book describes the analytical process from exploratory analysis through model developments, to deployments and possible outcomes. Beginning with an introduction to heuristic concepts, readers will find heuristics applied to statistics and probability, mathematics, stochastic, and artificial intelligence models, ending with the knowledge applications that solve business problems. Case studies illustrate the everyday application and implication of the techniques presented, while the heuristic approach is integrated into analytical modeling, graph analysis, text analytics, and more.Robust analytics has become crucial in the corporate environment, and randomness plays an enormous role in business and the competitive marketplace. Failing to account for randomness can steer a model in an entirely wrong direction, negatively affecting the final outcome and potentially devastating the bottom line. Heuristics in Analytics describes how the heuristic characteristics of analysis can be overcome with problem design, math and statistics, helping readers to: Realize just how random the world is, and how unplanned events can affect analysisIntegrate heuristic and analytical approaches to modeling and problem solvingDiscover how graph analysis is applied in real-world scenarios around the globeApply analytical knowledge to customer behavior, insolvency prevention, fraud detection, and moreUnderstand how text analytics can be applied to increase the business knowledgeEvery single factor, no matter how large or how small, must be taken into account when modeling a scenario or event—even the unknowns. The presence or absence of even a single detail can dramatically alter eventual outcomes. From raw data to final report, Heuristics in Analytics contains the information analysts need to improve accuracy, and ultimately, predictive, and descriptive power.

AVOID THE MISTAKES THAT OTHERS MAKE – LEARN WHAT LEADS TO BEST PRACTICE AND KICKSTART SUCCESSThis groundbreaking resource provides comprehensive coverage across all aspects of business analytics, presenting proven management guidelines to drive sustainable differentiation. Through a rich set of case studies, author Evan Stubbs reviews solutions and examples to over twenty common problems spanning managing analytics assets and information, leveraging technology, nurturing skills, and defining processes.Delivering Business Analytics also outlines the Data Scientist’s Code, fifteen principles that when followed ensure constant movement towards effective practice. Practical advice is offered for addressing various analytics issues; the advantages and disadvantages of each issue’s solution; and how these solutions can optimally create organizational value.With an emphasis on real-world examples and pragmatic advice throughout, Delivering Business Analytics provides a reference guide on: The economic principles behind how business analytics leads to competitive differentiationThe elements which define best practiceThe Data Scientist’s Code, fifteen management principles that when followed help teams move towards best practicePractical solutions and frequent missteps to twenty-four common problems across people and process, systems and assets, and data and decision-makingDrawing on the successes and failures of countless organizations, author Evan Stubbs provides a densely packed practical reference on how to increase the odds of success in designing business analytics systems and managing teams of data scientists.Uncover what constitutes best practice in business analytics and start achieving it with Delivering Business Analytics.

Plain English guidance for strategic business analytics and big data implementation In today's challenging economy, business analytics and big data have become more and more ubiquitous. While some businesses don't even know where to start, others are struggling to move from beyond basic reporting. In some instances management and executives do not see the value of analytics or have a clear understanding of business analytics vision mandate and benefits. Win with Advanced Analytics focuses on integrating multiple types of intelligence, such as web analytics, customer feedback, competitive intelligence, customer behavior, and industry intelligence into your business practice. Provides the essential concept and framework to implement business analyticsWritten clearly for a nontechnical audienceFilled with case studies across a variety of industriesUniquely focuses on integrating multiple types of big data intelligence into your businessCompanies now operate on a global scale and are inundated with a large volume of data from multiple locations and sources: B2B data, B2C data, traffic data, transactional data, third party vendor data, macroeconomic data, etc. Packed with case studies from multiple countries across a variety of industries, Win with Advanced Analytics provides a comprehensive framework and applications of how to leverage business analytics/big data to outpace the competition.

A hands-on, analytics road map for health industry leaders The industry-wide transformation taking place across the health and life sciences ecosystem is mandating that organizations adopt new decision-making capabilities, based on science and real-world information. Analytics will be a required competency for the modern health enterprise; this book is about how to "cross the chasm." The ultimate analytics guide for the health industry leader, this essential book equips business leaders with little-to-no experience in analytics to understand how to incorporate analytics as a cornerstone of their 21st century competitive business strategy. Paints the picture for a new health enterprise, one focused on the patientExplores the financial components of this new operating model, using analytics to optimize the tradeoffs between cost and valueDeals with the rising role of the consumer, using analytics to create a completely new health engagement model with individual recipients of careLooks at how analytics can drive innovations in care practice, patient-experienced medical outcomes, and analytically driven novel therapies optimized for the individual patientPresents a variety of text, tables, and graphics illustrating the various concepts being describedWithin each section and chapter, Health Analytics assesses the current landscape, proposing a new model/concept, sharing real-world stories of how the old and new world come together, and framing a "how-to" for the reader in terms of growing that particular set of capabilities in their own enterprises.

An insightful look at the implementation of advanced analytics on human capital Human capital analytics, also known as human resources analytics or talent analytics, is the application of sophisticated data mining and business analytics techniques to human resources data. Human Capital Analytics provides an in-depth look at the science of human capital analytics, giving practical examples from case studies of companies applying analytics to their people decisions and providing a framework for using predictive analytics to optimize human capital investments. Written by Gene Pease, Boyce Byerly, and Jac Fitz-enz, widely regarded as the father of human capitalOffers practical examples from case studies of companies applying analytics to their people decisionsAn in-depth discussion of tools needed to do the work, particularly focusing on multivariate analysisThe challenge of human resources analytics is to identify what data should be captured and how to use the data to model and predict capabilities so the organization gets an optimal return on investment on its human capital. The goal of human capital analytics is to provide an organization with insights for effectively managing employees so that business goals can be reached quickly and efficiently. Written by human capital analytics specialists Gene Pease, Boyce Byerly, and Jac Fitz-enz, Human Capital Analytics provides essential action steps for implementation of advanced analytics on human capital.

Discover the secrets to applying simple econometric techniques to improve forecasting Equipping analysts, practitioners, and graduate students with a statistical framework to make effective decisions based on the application of simple economic and statistical methods, Economic and Business Forecasting offers a comprehensive and practical approach to quantifying and accurate forecasting of key variables. Using simple econometric techniques, author John E. Silvia focuses on a select set of major economic and financial variables, revealing how to optimally use statistical software as a template to apply to your own variables of interest. Presents the economic and financial variables that offer unique insights into economic performanceHighlights the econometric techniques that can be used to characterize variablesExplores the application of SAS software, complete with simple explanations of SAS-code and outputIdentifies key econometric issues with practical solutions to those problemsPresenting the "ten commandments" for economic and business forecasting, this book provides you with a practical forecasting framework you can use for important everyday business applications.