Crossing the analytics wilderness: The route according to a 'born again optimisation evangelist

Abstract

This is the personal view and journey of the author, gained over 40 years in Information Systems and Analytics, mostly in industry, latterly from the perspective of software vendor. Since graduating in OR in the '70s, it is still extremely disappointing how few businesses are using the potential of analytics. The original obstacles related to poor tooling, feeble computers, lack of data and lack of skills and knowledge; have largely been overcome. Unenlightened businesses are still running their businesses using rudimentary spreadsheets. There is a void, which I term the 'Analytics Wilderness', where predictive and prescriptive analytics should be being used. To cross this wilderness, we need to examine what the current inhibitors are and work out how to overcome them. We need to do some things differently to solve this problem to unleash the potential of analytics, providing a guide to crossing the 'Analytics Wilderness'.