Nov/Dec 2010

Use of the term “business analytics” is being used within the information technology industry to refer to the use of computing to gain insight from data. The data may be obtained from a company’s internal sources, such as its enterprise resource planning application, data warehouses/marts, from a third party data provider or from public sources. Companies seek to leverage the digitized data from transaction systems and automated business processes to support “fact-based” decision-making. Thus, business analyticsis a category of computing rather than a specific method, application or product.

• Irvin Lustig, CAP-X
• Brenda Dietrich
• Christer Johnson
• Christopher Dziekan

For a lucky few, the field of quantitative consulting provides the type of catalyst-environment that keeps engineers and operations research analysts continually challenged, perpetually seeking a deeper understanding of the their client’s problems and the governing dynamics that created them. However, quant consulting is not just about analytical skill. In addition to conducting statistical analysis, building spreadsheet models and formulating linear programs, “quant-sultants” need to develop soft skills as well, yet many quants believe that solutions sell themselves. This is but one of the many myths surrounding the field, and in this article I hope to dispel most, if not all, of them. Prospective quantitative consultants take heed; you may want to disabuse yourselves of these misconceptions before entering into this fascinating and rewarding field.

• David Lengacher

Susan is having a hectic Thursday at work. Busy days are nothing new for this 20-year veteran of the financial services industry. Susan works as the director of operations at the headquarters of Excellence Bank. A regional retail bank with 25 locations, Excellence Bank caters to consumers and small businesses in the state in which it was founded 75 years ago.

• Atanu Basu
• Scott Brown
• Tim Worth

Credit cards and consumer and business loans have been experiencing vacillating delinquencies and losses over the last few years, resulting in an overall increasing trend in delinquency and write-off rates, as shown in Figure 1. In these turbulent times, staying focused on executable practices with a strong track record of results provides a guide for how companies are turning collections into a competitive advantage. The most agile, novel and flexible will succeed in reducing delinquencies. They will mitigate losses during this time by understanding customer behavior, customer communication preferences, and the effectiveness of various channels in increasing response rate and maximizing recovery.

• Vishal Ahuja
• P Moorthy

Recent news reports indicate that Barnes and Noble, once giant of the bookstores, is putting itself up for sale, while GM prepares to issue new stock to emerge from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Circuit City is gone, and Rite-Aid is reportedly teetering on the edge. Urban newspapers are becoming a vanishing species. The recession has played a part, but all these companies have competitors who are doing better. Such stories keep appearing, and alleged experts repeatedly proclaim, “They couldn’t adapt to the changing market.”

• Doug Samuelson

In introducing the first decision analysis software survey for OR/MS Today (www.lionhrtpub.com/ORMS.shtml) in 1993, Dennis Buede wrote, “Decision analysis is the discipline of evaluating complex alternatives in the light of uncertainty, value preferences and risk preference” [1]. Decision analysis software has certainly changed since then. Computational horsepower and memory were critical concerns in 1993. Today, vendors are producing a richer set of analysis tools and better visualization and analysis options. The functionality of tools seems to increase each year, thanks to the integration of optimization, simulation, forecasting and data analysis techniques. Opportunities for Web-based collaboration and integration into business analytics have never been better.

• Don Buckshaw