Why Data Analytics Is The Need Of The Hour For Your Businesses

We live in an age where the human race has created more data than it can collectively compute. Our brains are not built to process and such large quantities of data and to make sense of the chaos, we must allow machines to step in. While gut-based instinct is often the basis for decisions, analytically informed intuition is the path to success. 

In the last decade, we’ve witnessed that the ability to harness data is a powerful business tool. With big data on the rise, your business needs to not only process unimaginable amounts of data but also qualitatively assess it. Analysing data to arrive at profitable decisions is the very purpose of data analytics. This business tool allows you to takes raw data and makes it usable through insights for effective decision-making, while reducing risks and maximising opportunity. 

Several studies have highlighted the value of analytics. Companies that use predictive analytics are outperforming those that do not by a mile and more. The science of analysing data is holistic and is not limited to a sector. Manufacturing companies may use data analytics to assess workloads to ensure machinery is operating at maximum capacity or a financial firm may use it to ascertain market risk while retail companies can use data analytics to evaluate customer satisfaction and predict retention rates. In today’s fast paced world, data analytics becomes even more important. It helps businesses optimise overall performance by eliminating wastages which can significantly affect the bottom line. 

Irrespective of the field data analytics is applied to, the process unfolds in the following ways.

1. Evaluate the necessary data to be collected.
2. Collect data sets via tools that best fit the business.
3. Organise data for analysis (Softwares have mechanised this previously laborious procedure, now allowing you to segregate and store your data in secure cloud systems).
4. Clean the data for gaps or repetition and proceed to analysis.

To function, data analytics requires several systems to work in conjunction with each other. The main ones include

Data mining: Data mining takes large sets of data and finds patterns allowing you to find essential business answers hidden under complex data dumps. 

Machine Learning: A subset of artificial intelligence, machine learning allows the software to learn and automate models, thus making your data analytics systems independent. 

Data management:  Data enters and exits businesses at the speed of light. To ensure no data is missed or evaluated incorrectly, data management plays an important role in prescribing a set standard to collect, store and address quality data.

Data analytics is at the heart of the future for every business and the bottom line is, well, data analytics help improve your bottom line. We hope this article has opened your eyes to the importance and application of data analytics. To take a look at how DCT has enabled some of the biggest global companies to organise and evaluate their data, take a look at our case studies here.