This presentation, given at the Young OR conference in April 2013, discusses the growth of analytics and the history of the use of data, technologies and quantitative methods in businesses.

2. What is Analytics?
What is the difference between business analytics and business intelligence?
1
Analytics is a subset of
business intelligence
Davenport & Harris (2007, p 7)
Business intelligence
is a subset of analytics
Vesset et al (2012); SAP (2012)
Business intelligence &
analytics are a combined discipline
Chen et al (2012); Lim et al (2012)
Analytics is a ‘rebranding’
of business intelligence
Eckerson (2011); Elliot (2011)

3. What’s the difference between …?
Analytics is ...
delivering the right decision support to the
right people at the right time.
Laursen & Thorlund, 2010, p XII
Decision Support Systems are ...
technology solutions that can be used to
support complex decision making.
Shim et al, 2002
Analytics is ...
[the] technologies, systems, practices, and
applications to analyze critical business data
so as to gain new insights
Lim et al, 2012
Management Information Systems are …
an arrangement of equipment and procedures, […]
designed to provide managers with information
Collins English Dictionary
Analytics is ...
the scientific process of transforming data
into insight for making better decisions
INFORMS
Operational Research is ...
The application of advanced analytical
methods to make better decisions.
INFORMS
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4. Presentation Structure
3
1. Historical Analysis of Analytics
2. The 1st Era: The Scientific Method
3. The 2nd Era: Management Information Systems
4. The 3rd Era: Decision Support Systems
5. The 4th Era: Business Intelligence
6. The 5th Era: Business Analytics
7. What is an Era?
8. Analytics and Operational Research

5. Historical Analysis of Analytics
4
1. Where to start?
2. What to include?

11. What is an Era?
o Is an era a paradigm?
o Is an era just hype?
o Shares many of the purposes
& practices of previous era(s).
o However, introduces new
challenges, innovations,
characteristics & perspectives.
10

12. Analytics and Operational Research
11
The most visible level.
The most era-specific part. Concerns
general discussions (or hype).
Describes the underlying disciplines.
Includes technological, quantitative
methods & decision making disciplines.

13. Summary
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• Each era has unique concerns but is closely related to the last.
• For OR ‘rebranding’ as analytics has problems:
 Instability
 Lose the core of the “OR brand”.
• Ignore analytics?
 Miss opportunity
 Ignore the concerns of the “ecosystem”
 Opportunities to innovate
o Real-time OR
o Distributed File Systems & OR
o OR & data mining ‘Big Data’

14. Contact Details and Questions
Email: m.j.mortenson@lboro.ac.uk
Website: www.whatisanalytics.co.uk
Mobile: 07833 -------
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=114000243&trk=tab_pro
(or search Michael Mortenson)