Adding value to business applications with embedded advanced analytics

Advanced analytics methods, such as predictive modelling, are increasingly being deployed within business processes – helping companies to increase their revenues or reduce their costs. This article shows how advanced analytics may be embedded directly into business applications, through the use of software drawn from libraries of mathematical and statistical algorithms. We list examples of applications that may benefit from embedded algorithms and provide a case study example on the theme of propensity modelling for customer management. Finally, the article summarises the typical stages in building a business application containing embedded analytics, and the skill sets that are likely to be required. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.