TechTarget recently interviewed Data and Analytics Practice Lead Faisal Malik for his expertise in predictive analytics.
TechTarget, an online publication and tech authority, recently interviewed National Data and Analytics Practice Lead Faisal Malik for his expertise.
The article defines simulation and predictive analytics and how companies can use them to forecast data and boost capabilities.
According to Malik, organizations often use simulations to try to understand outcomes in high-risk scenarios or unique situations for which there’s no historical equivalent.
“Simulation is a way of doing a lot of experimentation without investing a lot of time, money and effort,” Malik said. “You can simulate environments and learn from them what is the optimal course of action I want to take, and once I learn that I can program it.”
Like all analytics, simulations help organizations better understand potential scenarios and possible outcomes. Simulations can also support predictive analysis.
“The variables you’re getting from simulation can feed into predictive analytics,” Malik said.
For example, financial firms can use simulations to understand the effect of a war on the stock market, Malik said. They can use the simulation within their predictive analysis to predict the probability of specific outcomes given a specific action in the simulated market condition.
According to the article, the demand for simulation capabilities is quickly growing. It said experts expect more companies to use simulations as part of their analytics capabilities as they start or increase their investments in simulation and analysis software and as they advance their enterprise data and analytics programs.
As that happens, enterprise executives must be clear about which analytical capabilities to apply when, Malik said.
“These techniques are very useful, but you have to be savvy enough to know whether to use predictive analysis or simulation to solve your problem,” he said. “You have to ask what is the best tool to apply to get the results.”
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