Cookies help us display personalized product recommendations and ensure you have great shopping experience.

By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    sales and data analytics
    How Data Analytics Improves Lead Management and Sales Results
    9 Min Read
    data analytics and truck accident claims
    How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
    7 Min Read
    predictive analytics for interior designers
    Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
    8 Min Read
    image fx (67)
    Improving LinkedIn Ad Strategies with Data Analytics
    9 Min Read
    big data and remote work
    Data Helps Speech-Language Pathologists Deliver Better Results
    6 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Five Analytics Must-Haves For Your Business
Share
Notification
Font ResizerAa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Analytics > Five Analytics Must-Haves For Your Business
Analytics

Five Analytics Must-Haves For Your Business

clevity
clevity
4 Min Read
Image
SHARE

According to IBM and other sources, over 90% of the world’s data has been created in just the last two years.  At first, that sounds crazy, but if you stop to think about it, we now have sensors counting visitors to stores, POS systems that track customer information, and just about any detail you can think of around each part that is manufactured and each item that is sold.

Companies everywhere are investing heavily in IT.  Some are building an analytics function as well.  The rest, hopefully, will be following suit.  Here are five “must haves” as you look to build your analytics function:

1) Analysts must have prior business experience and knowledge of your business

Requesting reports and data from IT is not enough.  You need analytics professionals who have worked in business roles, and understand where to find issues and how to fix them.  Whether you hire from within or bring in consultants, your analytics team should have at least some knowledge of the areas of the business that you want to improve.  Without the ability to bridge the gap between raw data and business improvement, the team will get nowhere fast.  If you prefer to build this function from within, then provide the opportunity for your employees to shadow one another and learn new business functions.  If hiring external consultants, make sure they have access to and buy-in from the right business leaders in order to quickly get up to speed.

More Read

Unifying Your Business Analytics: Social Media & Private Text
Interactive Analytics and OLAP – Part II
Analytics Ascendant: Will Predictive Modeling Replace All Other Ways of “Knowing” Customers?
After 31 Years of Spreadsheets, It’s Time to Move On
Google Flu Trends: Importance of Veracity, the 4th V in Big Data

2) Technical skills must correspond to your business

The right technical tools differ from business to business.  In most cases, it will suffice for the analytics team to pull the necessary data into a SQL data warehouse to analyze the data, and tools like Excel and Tableau to present findings.  However, some companies, particularly those with terabytes of data, may require “big data” tools such as Hadoop and NoSQL.  If you are not sure, seek opinions from a third party to make this determination.

3) Executives and upper-level management must be bought in

Any investment you make in the analytics function will be all for naught if management refuses to listen to the results.  Despite the upward trend in data, many businesses still prefer to run on intuition and personal knowledge rather than listening to what the data is telling them.  Both intuition and data are valuable and are best used hand-in-hand, so long as you are willing to let the data tell you when you are wrong in addition to when you are right.

4) There should be dollars tied to findings

Of course, management cannot be expected to listen to the data without good reason.  The analytics function is one that should be able to pay itself off.  Most, if not all, analytics projects should be tied to a dollar figure that shows management how much the bottom line will be increased should they follow the given recommendations.  For example, bidding out existing freight will save X% of shipment costs or optimizing labor schedules will result in $Y million revenue uplift.

5) You should build the analytics function now

If you have not yet built an internal analytics function or brought in an external team to assess your business, chances are that cost is the main culprit.  However, what many organizations do not realize is that the ROI on such projects typically far outweighs the costs.  A small investment in the right resources now will pay dividends in the future to your bottom line.

Share This Article
Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

sales and data analytics
How Data Analytics Improves Lead Management and Sales Results
Analytics Big Data Exclusive
ai in marketing
How AI and Smart Platforms Improve Email Marketing
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive Marketing
AI Document Verification for Legal Firms: Importance & Top Tools
AI Document Verification for Legal Firms: Importance & Top Tools
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive
AI supply chain
AI Tools Are Strengthening Global Supply Chains
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive

Stay Connected

1.2kFollowersLike
33.7kFollowersFollow
222FollowersPin

You Might also Like

Springwise and its network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for…

1 Min Read
CIO and IT development
AnalyticsBig DataBusiness IntelligenceIT

CIOs Predict IT Development

4 Min Read

Stratified Sampling vs. Posterior Probability Thresholds

7 Min Read
Image
AnalyticsBig DataCloud ComputingHadoop

Oracle Goes All In On Cloud

6 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

ai in ecommerce
Artificial Intelligence for eCommerce: A Closer Look
Artificial Intelligence
data-driven web design
5 Great Tips for Using Data Analytics for Website UX
Big Data

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?