Internet users create more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data on an almost daily basis. How much data must be flying around all over the place, from a digital interactive smart screen on a refrigerator to the grocery store loyalty card designed to track your spending on fresh produce.
With all that information being generated at record speeds, your business or organization needs advanced data analytics technology to leverage the info you receive to improve essential processes and maximize profitability. Data analytics is one of the fundamental changes happening through the digital transformation we are seeing across all industries. It is analytics that has given birth to the Data Driven organization, a core element of our future business models.
What is Data Analytics?
Every company is trying to collect data on their customers every time there is an interaction, but if you do not have a way to interpret this data, then all you are doing is hoarding information. Data analytics is the systemic process of deciphering and interpreting raw data to deliver insights that will improve your decision-making.
Web design and eCommerce platforms are excellent examples of areas where data analytics come into play. Businesses use metadata and tracking information to discover why a visitor lands on their webpage, what they look at, how long they look at something, and why they leave before making a purchase.
As you can imagine, these highly valuable insights inform the business about what needs to be changed to maximize profit potential. Data analytics tools are used to calculate what can be addressed to encourage more visitations to their online store, resulting in higher conversion rates and sales. The overall goal is a deeper understating of their client’s needs, wants, and behaviors.
Ways to Use Data Analytics
There are four main types of data analytics including descriptive, predictive, diagnostic, and prescriptive. In every case, these tools are used to measure a particular grouping of raw data to gain some form of beneficial insight. A company can streamline business operations to lower costs by leveraging data analytics while improving customer touchpoints to encourage greater sales.
Most will employ data analytics as a form of predictive behavior. If you have the raw data around what happens to your company on a typical business day in the Fall, you can then predict how to adjust what your business controls on that date in the future to get the most out of your day.
This can also be used in marketing, security, conversion rates, customer acquisition, social media engagement, and pretty much any other factor of a business where data is collected. Even sports teams use data analytics to predict how one of their players will perform against an opposing team based on previous performance and gathered biographical statistics.
How does Data Analytics Improve Your Business?
New insights mean smoother operations. If you can optimize a few dollars from your essential business operations, you end up with massive savings over the long term. The same is valid for-profit maximization. If changing the font or color of your website results in even 1 more client acquisition per week, you are left with more than 50 new clients every year, which could make or break your business.
Data analytics tools help improve your business through:
- Personalized Customer Experience - using collected client information to cater their online experience or messaging to their specific demographics.
- Informs Decision Making - using real-time evidence-based information to help make more informed decisions related to growth and development.
- Streamlines Operations - create new efficiencies along your production or supply chain while uncovering new insights into internal repairs and beneficial changes.
- Mitigates Risk - being able to take preventative measures for possible future fluctuations in the market, business operations, or your specific niche.
- Enhances Security - any way you can help IT reduce the number of attacks against your business is going to result in a more reliable, stable, and profitable business eventually.
What are the Various Platforms of Data Analytics?
The collection, retention, and interpretation of data is one of the fastest-growing technology fields in the market because of its criticality to the way data is consumed. A data analytics platform performs all these functions as a complete package and then reports on their outcomes to the client. These are usually interactive digital dashboards or entire companies where you have a single point of contact between them and your team.
There are numerous data analytics platforms on the market now because so many companies need tailored solutions for their niche industries. Some of the more well-known include:
- Microsoft Power BI
- Tableau
- Oracle Analytics Cloud
- Alteryx
- Qlik
- And more
The overall goal is to have a platform that follows a set of cultural principles, tools, data points, and capabilities that enhance your business decision-making using data-driven insights. As a business operator or leader, you want to work with a platform that can do all these traits in the background without requiring a lot of oversight on your end so you can make efficient use of your time.
Challenges of Data Analytics
Using modern data analytics tools to improve your business operations does not come without some challenges. You need to collect meaningful, raw data that can be used to gain valuable insights. Understanding the color of your client’s car probably is not essential if you are running a business around train commuters. You need to work with a team that can translate what information is critical to collect by improving your data literacy.
You also need to consolidate and select the correct tools for your business operations. This should require speaking to a professional that understands what storage, transmission, sourcing, quality, and other critical factors are important to your data lifecycle. Without the proper quality control features, you risk being overwhelmed by useless information that will only slow your team from reaching its goals.
The more data you collect, the greater the toll on your security features. The last thing you want is a story hitting the newsfeeds about how your business is risking the privacy of its clients. That is why building a bespoke solution while incorporating a data culture among your business team is imperative to success.
What are the Various Platforms of Data Analytics?
When integrating data analytic tools, the key values you will see are business operational expenses and profits. A quality data analytics platform will provide speedy insights that allow you and your team to make meaningful conclusions in real-time from your various sources of collection. This way, if the market fluctuates, you can respond appropriately even if you did not predict the change.
More industry knowledge will grow inside your team because of the visual presentation of clear graphics, charts, and data storytelling related to the reports you commission. Instead of taking a wild guess at how many visitors are landing on your homepage, you can get a breakdown of all the relevant information about where people are coming from, what they look at the most, and where they go next.
Having high-quality data presented in an easy-to-understand format allows your team to steer the ship better and should result in identifiable value increases in operations, customer relationships, profit margins, and other essential business success points.
Conclusion
The use of data analytics tools in your organizational and business operations improves your decision-making and ability to lower costs while increasing profits. It collects, combines, analyzes, and reports on the essential information vital to your market niche while uncovering key insights that can be leveraged to solidify your competitive advantage.
To get the most benefit from this type of analysis, you are best served by hiring a professional team that understands the different data analytics platforms available and how to integrate them into your business operations.
That is where NextPhase’s automation enabled Data Management services can help. We have years of experience working with data analytics tools and reporting to assist your business and improve potential revenue markets. Our professional team can walk you through the value we have created for numerous clients and how our tools can enhance your operations. Reach out today to schedule a consultation with our experts. Email us: hello@nextphase.ai