With the advent of the Internet and pervasive use of ICT, companies have massive amounts of data at their disposal, but have yet to reap significant business benefits from analysing the data. Business Analytics (BA), or the use of sophisticated statistical analysis, predictive modelling and optimisation techniques to derive insights from data, can play a significant economic role to benefit enterprises in various sectors by enhancing the competitiveness of these companies, saving costs through gains in productivity and operational efficiencies, and growing revenue by delivering more targeted and relevant products and services to their customers.

In Singapore, the Retail & Wholesale and Food & Beverage (F&B) sectors contribute significantly to the national GDP. These sectors are also assessed to be ready for BA adoption due to the availability of data collected by the businesses, and the potential business impact that companies in these sectors could see from adopting BA.