O.R./Analytics at Work Blog

The INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research kicks off April 15 in Huntington Beach, CA. I had a chance to preview a presentation by Glenn Bailey, Sr. Director of Operations Research atManheim (the $3B wholesaler auto auctioneer). Glenn's talk is on "The Need for Speed: Responsive Predictive Analytics," and he makes an important statement:

There's no correlation between Analytic Complexity and Business Value -- so conduct your analytics accordingly

While the availability of this technology is a blessing, and our love of the technology is much deserved, we mustn't lose sight of the business problems we use this technology to solve. And, as Glenn asserts, we mustn't lose sight of the business value we are attempting to deliver.We are in an age of amazing possibilities when it comes to the big data at our fingertips, and the high-performance analytics available for extracting knowledge and improving decisions. The technology lets us attack more types of problems, approaching them from different angles with more methods, and to do all this in much less time than it ever took before.

It is well-established in forecasting that simple methods can, and frequently do, perform better than more complicated methods. A moving average or simple exponential smoothing will be the most appropriate forecasting model in some situations, and there is no shame in that. While more complex or sophisticated methods can always give our model a better fit to history, this does does guarantee better forecasts. (See Makridakis, et al, Forecasting Methods and Applications (pp. 526-527) for a brief but excellent discussion of simple versus complex methods.)

Supply Chain & Forecasting Tracks

While at INFORMS, some other noteworthy presentations include:

• Sam Iosevich of Prognos on "How can you integrate demand planner knowledget into the statistical forecast"
• Kean Chew of HAVI Global Solutions on "The numbers behind burgers and fries"
• Robert Fildes of Lancaster University Centre for Forecasting on "Improving supply chain forecasting"
• Anne Robinson of Verizon on "Influencers, Skeptics, and Data Geeks"
• Manoj Chari of SAS on "Tools and Approaches for Big Analytics"

Read more about forecasting on the SAS Blog: http://blogs.sas.com/content/forecasting/

Kevin Geraghty, new IOL Editor-in-chief

I guess it's time I introduce myself. My name is Kevin Geraghty. I am the new Editor-in-Chief of INFORMS Online, and I'm very excited by the opportunities and direction that INFORMS leadership intends to take our site. One of the more notable recent changes we are adopting for the INFORMS brand is the incorporation of the term ‘Analytics’. The INFORMS Analytics Section has been launched along with a rather exciting Innovation in Analytics Award competition that you really should read up on. Since my background is in Digital Marketing, a lot of what I want to achieve over my two-year tenure is to let the world know just how cool Operations Research/Analytics is. But getting the word out cannot be a haphazard undertaking. It requires an organized marketing approach to give voice to the true enthusiasm of our members. One of my first areas of attention is to improve our approach to SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) SEO refers to a tool bag of technical adjustments to a website, content creation, and reputation enhancement that allows search engines to understand what our site is about and why the content on our site speaks with authority and relevance. We need to explain to the Search Engine bots, in a language the bots understand that a searcher who has typed in a keyword such as ‘Operations Research’ or ‘Analytics’ will be happier if www.informs.org is prominently featured on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). While there are many other ‘for pay’ marketing tactics, such as paid search or display, those are really not necessary for a site such as www.informs.org. We already have a site with strong, highly relevant content and boatloads of authority.

One area where the membership could really help us is in developing back links. If you find an article or page on www.informs.org that you like, you should place a link from your site to ours. The search engines will take that link as a vote of confidence and rank us more highly for relevant keywords. This is particularly the case for sites with .edu or .mil as their top-level domain.

The other area I am particularly interested in exploring is social media. For those of us with experience in applying Operations Research to Analytic problems in the real world, we know how good this stuff is. For those of you who are just starting out in your career, not only do you know the power of your practice area, but I bet you are a bit more sophisticated with the use of Social Media than us old-timers. The buzz that is possible from social environments creates awareness and understanding of our profession. So when you read an article you like, Tweet about us, push the Like button, reference us on Quora, Digg or in some way let the world know what you think about us. Not only will you be furthering the interests of your chosen profession, but you will also be helping to transform it. That transformation is already underway in many areas. The extraordinary availability of data on the sematic web feeds our ever increasing need for understanding. Operations Research is the perfect tool to leverage that data. Increased communication capability has transformed management planning from a monthly exercise to an instantaneous response to an increasingly dynamic environment. Communicating your thoughts about the shared content and capability represented by INFORMS OnLine, and its contributors amplifies our impact on the world. Early in the information age, transformative power was concentrated in the hands of the people building the infrastructure. Increasingly, the infrastructure, such as the Internet or the mobile environment, is stable and reliable, and transformative power now moves to people with the skill set to leverage computing power and data to create insight and understanding. That sounds like INFORMS people to me.

I look forward to working with many of you to create a site that becomes a platform for transformation. And I look forward to seeing you at the annual conference in Charlotte. If you have a chance and are inclined to do so, please stop by the IOL Reception, Sunday evening at 6 pm in Trade Room, Westin Hotel for refreshments.

Thanks,
Kevin

The strategic planning subcommittee of the 2011 INFORMS Practice Conference Organizing Committee has decided to take steps to re-configure and re-brand the Practice Conference to better serve the emerging business analytics field.

Based on an analytics market study commissioned by INFORMS and performed by Capgemini Consulting, it was found that there is an emerging view of business analytics in the business world that is different than the traditional view of operations research in business.

The definition of analytics that emerged from the study is that:

Business analytics facilitates realization of business objectives through reporting of data to analyze trends, creating predictive models for forecasting and optimizing business processes for enhanced performance.

There is also a view that business analytics are “business as usual” with the analytical activities embedded in a multitude of business practices and that operations research is a specialized set of skills that are called upon for complex problems.

The study also contained recommendations regarding products and services that INFORMS could offer to become more in tune with the growing business analytics trend, some of which are a natural fit with the Practice Conference. The recommendations that the Conference strategic planning subcommittee chose to incorporate to enhance the current Practice Conference offerings are:

• more of a vertical focus to some tracks – including a track concentrating on training
• an expanded analytics executive program
• addition of a job fair for professionals
• case studies in applying analytics
• a track devoted to the analytics process

With these enhancements planned, it was decided to rebrand the Conference so that it captures the attention of business analysts without losing the support of traditional attendees from the operations research community. So, INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research was born.

The new title includes the key term “business analytics”, of course, but removes the word “practice” since it is more of an inward-looking term and is now covered by the word “business.” “Operations research” was kept because the Conference will in fact continue to report on and showcase all the core competencies of our discipline. It is, after all, a key element of the broader analytics field. Please note we have kept our current tag line “Applying Science to the Art of Business” because it is well liked, well known, and continues to describe the proceedings quite well.

With this strategic change, we now expect to attract a broader analytics audience to the Conference in 2011 while keeping our current attendees happy with a substantial operations research program. Please give us your thoughts on our Practice (or should we say “Analytics”) Conference reconfiguration and rebranding efforts.

Gary Bennett is Director of Marketing and Member Services for INFORMS.

David Leonhardi is a Decision Consultant at Boeing Commercial Airplane Group and this year’s General Chair of the 2011 Analytics Conference Organizing Committee.

https://renew.informs.org
Dear INFORMS member,

Thank you for being part of another successful year for the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Some of INFORMS 2010 accomplishments include:

• Strong abstract submission for the Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, which bodes well for very strong attendance;
• Successful and highly rated Practice Conference in Orlando, Florida that attracted a large number of C-level executives;
• Increased international cooperation through an excellent ALIO-INFORMS Joint International Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina;
• INFORMS Journals now hold four of the top five journal positions in Thomson’s OR/MS article influence rankings;
• Wide acceptance of our newest outreach effort, the digital magazine Analytics;
• Strong movement toward understanding and serving the burgeoning analytics field including an exciting re-branding of our spring Practice Conference as our spring Analytics Conference;
• Launching the brand new redesigned IOL website that shines the brightest possible light on INFORMS and the profession;
• At both the Practice and Annual Meetings, experimenting with new web technologies—including blogs, LinkedIn Groups, and Twitter feeds—to enhance the experience and increase the reach and impact of our meetings; and
• Launching the first of a series of Podcasts and on-demand video presentations in order to better disseminate new ideas and breakthroughs in the art and science of better decision making.

We know you share our excitement and enthusiasm for our field, which truly makes a difference in the lives of people everywhere. We invite you to renew your membership in the Institute today. Your membership dues show your support for our vitally important field and guarantee uninterrupted access to exclusive member benefits:

• Discounts of up to 60% or more on individual INFORMS publications including your dues journal and free member magazine;
• Suite of all 12 INFORMS electronic journals at the reduced price of $99 per year for regular members and $50 for retired and student members;
• Members-only savings on renowned topical, regional, national and international meetings, conferences, and workshops where you can present, learn, and network;
• Access to over 100 INFORMS Communities including Societies, Sections, and geographic and student Chapters, providing multiple options for networking with professional peers and enhancing the visibility you need;
• Educational material that you can use to enrich the O.R. classroom including print, electronic, audio, video, and multi-media materials; and
• A Job Placement Service that provides the first word on new job openings for positions in O.R. and related fields along with other career resources for academics, practitioners, and students.

We are looking forward to 2011 with great enthusiasm. We have three exciting and attractive meeting locations, including our brand new healthcare thematic meeting in beautiful and cosmopolitan Montreal in June! The Analytics Conference (formerly known as the Practice Conference) will be in fun and vibrant Chicago in April, and the Annual Meeting will take place in the growing, financial work horse city of Charlotte, North Carolina—home to great Southern charm, excellent food, and a thriving businesses community—in November. Our journals will continue to publish the very best of O.R. scholarship, and our many awards programs will continue to identify and reward meritorious achievement in all aspects of our field.

In 2011 we will continue progress on several strategic fronts. We will begin to serve professionals in the analytics field to help empower their organization’s decision making ability, further our mission, and strengthen our numbers. Pending an acceptable proposal, we plan to begin development of a new INFORMS journal—the first one in nearly 10 years. We will work to help ingrain O.R. and analytical thinking and decision making in all facets of government. And, we will take steps to ensure that principles of management science are taught in business schools to our leaders of tomorrow. Your membership dues support all of these activities, plus much more, including educational programs and outreach activities to spread the good word about O.R. and analytics.

Please don’t delay—renew your INFORMS membership today.

Sincerely,

From a practical standpoint I am an INFORMS member to support the professional society organized around the field I chose to study, practice, and teach. Professional societies need membership to remain strong, active, and influential, and I am more than willing to help INFORMS in this regard and have done so for over twenty years.

However, my decision to remain a member is more focused on my personal history with INFORMS and all that my membership has made available for me over the years. As an undergraduate student forcing myself to study biology because “being a doctor is good”, discovering O.R. classes, and finding that an O.R. professional society existed with meetings and journal publications really helped me find my academic focus. School actually became interesting! I joined ORSA as an undergraduate and even though I couldn’t understand any of the articles in Operations Research, I still wanted my copies!

After graduate school I worked in industrial R&D as an O.R. staff member. At this stage of my career the INFORMS journals and technical presentations that I could now understand became more of a focus. They helped me do my job for eight years. In addition to doing my job, I also found a new job through INFORMS in academia. As an academic who now teaches O.R., I find myself focusing more on opportunities to help INFORMS through committee work. I find this to be rewarding and a great way to meet a bunch of great people. This is where I am at now, and I will continue to be an INFORMS member. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine what would have been without INFORMS.

Please comment on why you are a member of INFORMS and why you stay a member.