Data is everywhere. In fact, an estimated 463 exabytes will be generated globally each day by 2025 — which is something like 212 million DVDs worth of digital space. Modern businesses are taking advantage of this prevalent and powerful tool to gain insights into their processes and customers. As a result, these businesses are thriving.
There is virtually no limit to what data analytics can teach you. From the online shopping habits of your intended audience to your ability to track and monitor the status of your machinery, data can give you the tools to improve your business processes.
As the world recovers from the economic damages of the COVID-19 virus, data analytics is one essential method of staying relevant and adaptable. Here, we explore how data analytics is helping businesses thrive in the modern world.
How Data Makes a Difference
The collection and application of data into business insights can make a world of difference. Data scientists gather sets of data with the help of analytics platforms and internet of things (IoT) devices that allow for the communication of data over a network. Then, these data experts collate this information in singular dashboards where they can get a better look at the full picture of business operations.
Through the insights business and data analysts can gleam, everything from more accurately directed marketing campaigns to predictive maintenance for heavy machinery becomes possible. This is immensely important because business analytics can directly affect the survivability of an operation. In the uncertain economy that has come in the wake of COVID-19, businesses need all the help they can get.
An effective business will build its organization around data science and allow data to drive all its future decision-making processes. Right now, the implementation of analytics in business is more important than ever because it gives leaders the means to make informed predictions about the outcomes of their decisions.
Business analytics provide a higher form of business intelligence, complete with data modeling and forward-looking algorithms. As a result, decision-makers can plot better choices now.
But how exactly can data analytics be applied?
Applying Analytics for Business Success
The applications of data analytics are unlimited. However, most businesses apply the valuable insights they derive from data into one of three categories. These are marketing, business efficiency, and employee wellbeing and productivity. By streamlining these pillars of success, businesses are adding value to their operations at every turn.
Here’s how data analytics have helped businesses thrive in each category:
Marketing
Data analytics are immeasurably powerful in their ability to increase marketing potential. When DirectTV analyzed its own market data, for example, it found a correlation between customers moving to a new home and trying out a new service. The cable provider then applied this insight to a personalized marketing campaign. With the help of USPS data regarding recent changes of address, DirectTV’s targeted advertisements and homepage outperformed their previous efforts.
All kinds of correlative insights can be derived from data, revealing who your audience is and what they need. That way, you can tailor your business model to better fit those needs.
Efficiency
Additionally, data analytics improves the overall efficiency of business practices. This is absolutely essential depending on the size of the market. For example, PepsiCo has to juggle inventory and shipments with anticipated demand to keep all their retailers stocked up with products. The corporation has applied data analytics to leverage insights into market patterns so they can keep up with their customers.
Data analytics supports scalability and efficiency. Even in these uncertain economic times, these benefits can support a thriving business model capable of adapting to changing markets.
Employee Wellbeing
The welfare of employees has fortunately not been forgotten in the race to embrace big data analytics. Human resource professionals are applying data analytics to the needs of their workforce from the moment they apply for the job. Here are some of the ways these insights are used in managing employees:
- Spotting behavior patterns in individuals and across departments
- Finding payroll inconsistencies or inefficient scheduling
- Collecting information about employee morale, wellbeing, and productivity
- Tracking the success of training and mentorship efforts
Data analytics can even be used to directly improve employee health and happiness. By using analytics to research the most effective, least expensive insurance and benefits packages, businesses can better guarantee care for their workers or give them the tools they need to make better health decisions.
In marketing, efficiency, and employee wellbeing, data analytics is always extremely valuable. The information gained from IoT sensors, performance metrics, customer interactions, and more tells a story about your business and how it functions. Analytics is the process of understanding that story so that you can apply its revelations towards greater success.
Changing the Economy through Data
Data analytics has the power to change the economy. By providing businesses with the means to develop new target markets, efficient solutions, and happier workers, they can more quickly come out of the current recession and truly thrive.
Big data collection can increase a business’s profit margins by both reducing costs and improving production rates. For any venture that has not yet applied data analytics in its own processes, doing so now can help you get ahead of the competition.
