Abstract

In order to understand how important business analytics is and how underutilized the practice is in modern businesses; the current state of the industry was searched for this project. Resulting from this research was a compilation of existing information including a list of a few companies and industries with ties to analytics, industry studies on ones that have been proponents or critics of analytics, and academic papers on the subject. From this information gathered, the work grew. The whole process yielded two main findings: 1. Business data is underused by a large proportion of businesses; 2. Both Blockbuster Video and Kodak could have been saved with the use of analytics. Finally, a few tools that companies could use were also detailed.