Topic > Analytics: Big Data and Analytics - 734

Only when an organization is able to use analytics to its full potential will it have a sustainable competitive advantage. The number of organizations using analytics is growing exponentially. You can get a lot of information just by analyzing one variable, but every piece of information is meaningful in some way. Companies use analytics to make improvements, better see future demands, meet sales forecasts, make decisions, make strategic plans, and streamline and validate key performance indicators. More and more organizations are starting to transition from their traditional practices to more technologically advanced practices. Through the use of big data, accountants can add more value to a company when making decisions by supporting their ideas with analytics. CFOs can now use big data and analytics to gain better insights and information to drive change in their organizations. Big data refers to the large amount of information that is stored and collected by companies through the use of technology. It offers managers the ability to measure and understand their activities better, which has certainly improved decision making and performance in businesses. It also offers greater opportunities for competitive advantage; therefore, big data can be considered a management revolution. With the help of big data, accountants can hope to play a more proactive role in their organizations. Today, executives and managers have developed a more anticipatory management style. Two types of analytics that help them develop this management style are predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics. With predictive analytics, executives and managers know what to anticipate in terms of demand and sales. The main focus of predictive analytics is… at the heart of the paper… general challenges. Many organizations do not use information technology as efficiently as they should. Organizations still rely too heavily on manual processes; therefore, many IT resources are wasted. Despite this, there will still be times when managers will have to make decisions in the traditional way in cases where the necessary data is missing or too expensive to obtain. Accountants will need to continue to improve their communication skills to accurately describe results. Big data will also need to develop new accounting metrics and standards, where data science and data art combine together to provide the information managers need. There is no doubt that there are still some limitations to what analytics can do, but without analytics, managers will not have enough understanding and insight to make good decisions for their organizations..