The Deal Architect blog by Vinnie Mirchandani recently looked at Analytics. Here are my two pennies' worth.
At SAP we spend much more time talking about analytics to customers today than ever before. Analytic software has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years. (not just the SAP stuff, but then I'm biased). The challenge isn't getting the data out anymore, or putting it into nice graphs or charts. It is that analytics really only starts once you have the results.
Innumeracy is a big issue, especially with many of the HR management types I deal with. (Fabulous book on innumeracy by Paulos made me wake up after avoiding the topic for 20 years- math teacher and I didn't get on at high school)
I spoke with a senior HR guy at a major German auto manufacturer a few months ago. He was doing some tremdenous stuff on the implications of the ageing workforce, combining it with all sorts of demographic and market data and providing his board with some key scenarios to ponder. He could talk about causality, statistical significance, probablities, deviations and the like. Analytics is a tremedous competitive advantage for this company. The difference between him and most "end-users" of analytics was vast, but then he had a PhD in statistics. He could also explain things to people who didn't.
technorati tag: SAP
There is an Australian, Peter Howes, who is on a mission to fix HR innumeracy. I hope he succeeds.
Bluntly put: Analytics is only as good as the person doing the analysis.
technorati tag: SAP
Vendorprisey 
Thomas – I agree completely. The tool is no longer as critical as it once was. I wrote about it here as the role of HRIS practitioners needs to change. However, it’s also the business owner who is asking the report writer for the data who determines how data is used and analyized.
nice post