Beginning Your Data Analytics Journey

The Oil of digital age – Data, and engine of a business are analytics. Utilising the data with right strategy enables informed growth and transformation, not just incremental efficiency gains.

Every business can leverage their data to drive improved decision making. The complex business problem can be solved by connecting the dots with data, seeking deeper understanding of your customers, etc. Data analysis can help understand your customers, evaluate performance, personalize content for respective audiences, and develop new products in line with the trends. Enterprises can leverage data analytics in enhancing business performance and drive your organization into the future. to understand how a business can begin their data analytics journey, role of cloud computing and more, we spoke to Naren Vijay, EVP-Growth, Lumenore.

The beginning of the data analytics journey

The era in which businesses could thrive without data analytics is now extinct. The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to support exponential data volume and rate growth. Today, we live in an era of rapid technological advancement, providing ample data opportunities. Data analytics is a business asset that should be prioritised alongside revenue, customer satisfaction, and profitability. However, to leverage the maximum from data analytics, businesses must be clear about the problem they are trying to resolve, their KPIs & business goals, TG, Revenue Target, etc. Once this is formulated, the organisation should create an analytics roadmap that aims to translate the intent of the data strategy into a plan of action. It should outline how to implement the key initiatives. A business-specific Analytics Roadmap will guide the business through the necessary requirements before taking the next steps. The roadmap prioritises which key performance areas should be addressed first and second, based on the knowledge of business stakeholders and, more importantly, data-science knowledge of where analytics can truly add value.

Building a Data Universe accomplishes making raw data accessible to users at all organisational levels. The design of systems allows firms to reduce the complexity of managing data through Data Universe. The maturity of an organisation's analytics improves its competitive position. As disruption continues to impact virtually all industries, the combination of historical and near-real-time data, as well as the ability to merge and analyse this information, gives businesses a competitive advantage.

The conversational intelligence & predictive intelligence

Conversation intelligence uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing technology to extract values from data in order to answer questions, deliver quality service, or improve customer support. This feature helps leverage instant insights which can be used to make successful business decisions. These conversational AI systems have been used in banking, retail, and marketing, among other fields.

Predictive intelligence helps in spotting outliers in data, identifying risks, and getting accurate forecasts. It monitors the market and customer behavior to provide insight into the market trends Harnessing the power of conversational intelligence and predictive intelligence has changed the face of industries like healthcare, pharmaceuticals, education, retail and automotive sector,and enabled them to better serve their customers.

Predictive Intelligence is a gift for the industries like healthcare, retail, automotive and financial services. This solution was widely used in many countries by healthcare professionals during the onset of Covid-19. This has helped them in the regions which can be highly infected, predict the number of Infected patients, and availability of medicines and other medical supplies. Similarly, industries like retail and automotive could forecast the demands and risks, which helped them in managing costs and resources.

Conversational Intelligence, on the other hand, helped each of these industries to get instant insights. It helps in easily accessing the information that assists in managing inventories, resources, and supplies.

The role of cloud computing in business analytics

Business analytics and Cloud computing are an ideal combination for industry verticals. Cloud computing offers vast opportunities for innovation and potentially the disruption of entire industries. Along with storage solutions, cloud computing offer advantages over conventional on-premises systems, including cheaper running costs and greater compatibility with digital organisations' work habits. Cloud computing is the supply of computing services, including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence, over the Internet (the cloud) to provide speedier innovation, scalable resources, and economies of scale.

Businesses have employed data analytics to guide their profit-maximising strategies. Ideally, data analytics aids reduce much of the guesswork involved in attempting to comprehend clients, instead systematically recording data trends to construct the most risk-averse business strategies and operations. The combination of cloud computing with data analytics would enable organisations to store, understand, and process their big data in a manner that better meets the demands of their customers.

Data visualization can aid businesses in making decisions 

Data visualisation can make a difference by facilitating rapid comprehension of vast amounts of information. In fact, data visualisation has become so pervasive in our daily lives that it can be difficult to recognise all the benefits it provides. Numerous daily activities, including watching the news, completing schoolwork, and determining which foods are healthy, are facilitated by graphical representations of data. The primary advantage of data visualisation is the presentation of data patterns. A visual representation of the available information can save individuals and businesses the time and effort required to perform data analytics independently. The four ways in which data visualisation enhances decision making:

• Data visualisation tools accelerate operations - Visualisation tools provide decision-makers with a reliable organisational framework, allowing them to comprehend their potential options quickly. Without data visualisation, organisations may fail to identify developing problems, forfeiting the opportunity to address them before they become incredibly harmful.

• A data-driven decision is more accurate - Data visualisation tools present voluminous amounts of data in an understandable visual format. Using data visualisation tools, business leaders can make decisions without relying on assumptions.

• Visualisation simplifies data- Data visualisation facilitates communication for all parties. It enables an intuitive and straightforward communication of valuable insights from complex datasets. Not only does data visualisation facilitate comprehension, but it also reduces the transmission of its contents to others.

• It improves cooperation - Data visualisation ensures that every team member is up-to-date on the facts, saving time that would otherwise be spent on verbal communication or answering redundant questions.

Building insight-ledculture without compromising on the data security

Business intelligence platforms allow users to import, cleanse, and analyse information from databases, emails, videos, and other sources. These data analyses provide mobile, desktop, and real-time business intelligence to enable decision-makers to improve their organisation based on insights. BI platforms would allow users to personalise dashboards, generate stunning data visualisations, construct scorecards, and compare them with key performance indicators (KPIs). Today, the adoption of big data analytics is expanding rapidly across all industries.

The difficulty, however, is that big data analytics platforms are typically stuffed with a vast quantity of products, partners, customers, and other data. This data typically has inadequate data security, providing cybercriminals with an excellent opportunity. By having the right partner on board, organisations can safeguard their data and drive maximum results. Using a BI platform and analytics tools are also essential for protecting the organisation's sensitive data. The use of BI tools to create an access system that drastically reduces the likelihood of an attack.

Naren Vijay, EVP-Growth, Lumenore

By Ashok Pandey

ashokpa@cybermedia.co.in