Analytics

It’s Not Data, It’s An Ammunition!

Napoleon Bonaparte, the great French military general and statesman once said, “War is 90 percent information”. He said it in a different context back in the 18th century, but it is certainly relevant today in the world where trade and business mean war. With each business trying to get on top, a few bits of information might be the greatest ammunition you might need to get an edge over your competition. The impact of not spending on data science and business analytics can be catastrophic. A recent study found that, US businesses lose up to Billions annually due to poor data quality. Poor data gives poor insights and hence, they lose business to competitors.

The question isn’t, “does your business need data analytics?” instead its “how can my business get better data and insights?” Data analytics is today a critical business function like sales, marketing, finance and production.

Now, before we get into the benefits, let’s understand what exactly business analytics is?

It is the detailed study of data or information through statistical and operations analysis. This helps the businesses in taking certain critical decisions and make some strategic moves. Most importantly, business analytics operations help you find a pattern in every operation that you are analyzing, which helps you schedule your work process accordingly.

What are the benefits of Business Analytics?

There are many benefits to speak about, but we will stick to just the critical points:

1- Increases revenues:

The most basic motive of any business is to increase their revenues and well, business analytics will help you achieve this. Using the insights derived from analytics, a company can make quick changes which can attract more consumers and drive up sales.

Earlier the time taken to receive information from the market, from consumers, distributors and regional heads would take a few weeks at least. With the internet and smart hand held devices, that relay data real time, the insights team can get all the market data they need for analysis immediately. This can be crucial as any product that is not performing well can be pulled from the market and replaced with a high performing one. Instead of a drop in sales, the company will see a steady rise in sales, all because the analytics team relayed insights immediately.

2- Decisive:

There are various decisions in a business that will be crucial in the short and the long term. Making a decision will always be a dilemma, but business analytics makes the work easier for you. The statistical analysis will provide you with trends and help you make up your mind when it comes to quick decision making.

Netflix is a great example of a business that uses data analytics to give you quick suggestions on the next movie you should watch based on your previous choices.

3- Competitiveness:

The market is a game of fine margins. The quality of your data analysis could help you climb over your competitor and win the battle.

How do you think the likes of Starbucks remain at the top in their businesses? Even they use data analytics to personalize their services for customers using the Starbucks app. They collect data regarding the buying patterns of the customer and their preferences. This helps them give the customers a better and improved service.

Personalization isn’t the sole purpose. They even use the data to come out with new advertisements, new menus, offers and much more!

4- Trend mapping:

Data analysis allows analysts to predict the future demand for certain products and commodities. By observing the current demand, prices and other economic factors of earlier years, an analyst can predict the demand for a product in a year with similar climatic and economic conditions.

With such knowledge, a company can buy its raw materials before hand at a lower cost and have the finished products in the stores when they expect the consumers to demand it. This will allow a company to have its products on the shelves before its competitors, who may not have an idea of the expected demand.

Conclusion:

A lot of the points mentioned above were unheard of 5-6 year back. However, today data allows people and organizations to be well prepared for tough competition. With data science and analytics any small firm can scale up rapidly by being present exactly at the places where consumers look for their products and selling the exact type or variant that their consumer wants. This can allow them to accumulate sufficient capital for growing their business.

Become a data science expert to help any organization grow by leaps and bounds in a short time. Join BSE Institute`s Certificate program in Business Analytics to begin your journey in this new emerging industry.

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