The ITEM Model
The words “prescriptive analytics” should make you think about the word “prescription”. When I hear “prescription”, my first thought is not about analytics. It is about fixing me when I am sick. Prescriptive analytics is very similar. Its goal is to fix things when they are “sick”.
If you have followed the DATA-INSIGHT-ACTION framework described in this book, you should have a quantifiable way to determine what areas of your organization are “sick”. This is where INSIGHT and ACTION meet.
Pharmaceutical companies determine whether a drug is effective to treat a certain condition by conducting experiments (or in some cases, a single experiment conducted over a long period of time). Populations of interest are split into groups: one group gets the drug, and one does not. The groups receiving the drug can receive different quantities, or even different types of treatments for comparison purposes...
