Table of contents:
- What is Business Analytics?
- Why is business analytics important?
- Business analytics techniques
- Benefits of business analytics
- Examples of business analytics
What Is Business Analytics?
Business analytics (BA) refers to the usage of technologies and practices to examine the data and performance of an organization. Statistical analysis is used to gain insights and make data-driven decisions in the future. It helps to identify which datasets are beneficial and which can drive revenue, and increase efficiency.
Key Statistics
- 90% of business strategies will explicitly mention data as a vital industry asset and analytics as a fundamental proficiency by 2022. (Gartner Research)
- The average Return on Investment (ROI) for organizations using business analytics and intelligence is 1300%. (Nuclear Research)
- 63% of enterprises use big data and analytics to create a competitive advantage for their business. (IBM)
- The Big Data Analytics market is predicted to reach $ 105.08 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 12.3% throughout the forecast period from 2019 to 2027 (Businesswire, 2020)
- The estimated total value of the business analytics software market in 2023 is going to be $57 million (Allied Market Research)
- Every industry now utilizes big data, but the media and entertainment sector takes the prize for predictive analytics. By analyzing their 100 million subscribers, Netflix was able to influence 80% of content viewed by subscribers due to accurate data insights. (Hostingtribunal)
- Together with analytics tools, the worldwide business intelligence software market is projected to reach $17.6 billion by 2024. (Apps Run the World, 2020)
Business Analytics (BA) is an indispensable tool for your company to make correct decisions. Your entire organization is impacted by these decisions as they are helpful to improve profitability, increase market share, and offer a better return to potential shareholders.
Technology impacts lots of businesses and when used properly BA can impact your company positively as it offers a competitive advantage to several companies. While some companies can’t figure out how to manage huge amounts of data, business analytics will help you to use this data with actionable insights so that you make better decisions as a company.
Also, you can use any format to present this data which will empower you to make the goals that you set at the beginning of the process work.
Basically, the four key ways business analytics is important, regardless of the industry, are:
- Improves performance by making it clear what is and isn’t working for your business
- Provides quicker and more correct decisions
- Decreases risks by helping businesses make the right choices about consumer behavior, trends, and performance
- Encourages change and innovation by answering questions about the consumer
Your digital marketing analytics must make sense. Don’t get overwhelmed by the internet marketing packages or the flood of digital marketing analytics as there are lots of things to track to make sure your business stays afloat.
Business Analytics Techniques
There are four kinds of business analytics.
- Descriptive analytics: Descriptive analytics interprets historical and current data to explain what is going on in a business right now. Trends and patterns are identified to describe the current condition of an organization.
- Predictive analytics: Predictions regarding future outcomes are made with the help of techniques including statistical modeling, forecasting, and machine learning. It is the prediction of what is likely to happen in the future?
- Prescriptive analytics: Prescriptive analytics uses testing and other techniques to suggest particular solutions that will get desired business outcomes. It uses past performance data to recommend what needs to be done.
- Diagnostic analytics: Diagnostic analytics explains why is it happening? Analytics techniques are used to find out the reasons for past or current performance.
Business analytics offers numerous benefits regardless of the size of your business or the industry.
- It allows your business to plan for the unexpected
- It can model the trends in your organization’s sales, profits, and other key metrics while projecting them for the future
- It helps businesses to prepare and plan ahead by identifying the changes that may occur annually, seasonally, or on any scale
- It can help big companies to predict order volume and minimize waste
- It allows your organization to test new marketing campaigns
- It provides data regarding customer behavior so that you can better understand the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns on different audiences and demographics
You can also consider offering targeted promotions to the customers when you identify that they are less likely to return which will help you to gain their business back. You’ll have a competitive edge over the competition regardless of your industry provided you utilize BA to your advantage.
Examples Of Business Analytics
1. Microsoft boosts collaboration
Microsoft’s workplace analytics group collaborated with commercial real estate company CBRE in 2016 to analyze how collaboration is fostered by the physical workspace. Its new workplace layout is based on the insights from the analytics project.
The changes made by Microsoft saved a total of 100 hours of work per week across 1,200 employees, which consecutively saved $520,000 per year in employee time and improved collaboration within teams.
2. Uber enhances customer support
Uber created Customer Obsession Ticket Assistant (COTA) in 2018. It is a tool that leverages machine learning and natural language processing techniques empowering its agents to provide better customer support.
COTA was further improved when deep learning and A/B testing were used in later versions. Through the A/B testing, the company determined adopting version 2 of COTA is going to enhance customer service and streamline the ticket resolution process saving it millions of dollars.
3. Blue Apron forecasts orders
Predictive analytics was used by Blue Apron to predict demand for its meal kits to optimize inventory and decrease spoilage, in addition to optimizing staffing by determining how many personnel are required to ship merchandise.
You can create an effective internet marketing strategy with the help of internet marketing in San Diego and use business analytics to develop analysis models to know current realities and predict the situation in the future.
Zahoor Bhat has over 10+ years of experience as an online editor and media manager. He has worked with major online news and content sites as a media manager. He is well versed with major content management systems and web platforms such as WordPress and social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google Business, Yelp, Instagram & Linkedin. He is an expert in content creation, proofreading and finally making it live. Being a social media expert, he is able to make relations with social media influencers and make sure to generate leads and grow business via different social media platforms.
