New technologies typically enable change, but they can also act as disruptive forces for challenging and improving traditional processes. This is especially true in the world of analytics, where recent technological advances have allowed companies to do more in smarter and faster ways.

Moreover, they have helped businesses to innovate with data and information in ways that were previously restricted by technology (or at the very least, not very well supported by it). As described in Chapter 1, technologies such as data warehouses and business intelligence allow firms to store and access data in relational structures, and to use software platforms to look at historical information. Today, companies can harness new technologies that enable them to address all of the data within their ecosystem, and to work at much greater scale and speed than previously possible.

As the proverbial saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention; that was certainly true when...