How well does your company use analytics?
It is hard to dispute the benefits of data analytics when large corporations such as Amazon and Microsoft are thriving because of it. Savvy companies are using data analytics to personalise customer experience, make better decisions, and to streamline their operations. The good thing is that the uses of data analytics are diverse.
Marketers are using business data analytics to tailor their campaigns by monitoring online trends and point of sale transactions. Having accurate data insights can also help you streamline your supply chain, while HR can employ the use of data analytics in business during recruitment to find a suitable workforce for your enterprise.
As alluring as this sound, many businesses are under utilising the potential of data analytics in their operations. From boosting customer acquisition and retention to enhancing risk management and improving data security, your business could gain a lot from accurate data insights. Our checklist below shows what separates the leaders from the struggling companies. It can help you determine how well you use data analytics in your business.
Data analysis test
Adopting the uses of business analytics in your company may take some time and resources to perfect but the benefits are immense. This is why you always need to ensure that your company’s data analytics processes are effective. Our data analysis test will help reveal if the uses of business analytics in your company needs improving:
1. Does your data analysis process identify business opportunities?
Every business needs to acquire new clients and retain loyal customers to survive. In the past, a company would have to send out non targeted surveys or questionnaires to figure out how to acquire and retain new clients. An effective data analysis strategy eliminates the need for this by offering you smarter solutions.
Companies using big data will often have the opportunity to collect information from various aspects of their business. Your business can use the data that it already collects from existing customers to identify new business opportunities. For example, you can use customer feedback or opinion to generate accurate business insights.
With this data, your business can identify customer trends, find the relevant customer segments they are already serving and find the type of clients to target. This means that you can use data analytics in business to explore new business opportunities. You can also carry out more research and see what drives or motivates your new target, then use these insights to convert them.
2. Does it mitigate & predict future risks?
Businesses today need more than getting the right insurance to mitigate their risks. With the constant use of tech and a risky business environment, it is only prudent that you have an effective risk management plan regardless of your sector. You should be able to foresee imminent risks so that you can apply strategies to mitigate them before they occur.
The right data analysis processes should not only allow you to predict but also mitigate these risks in real time. Some of the risks that many businesses face include employee theft, slow-selling stock, legal liability, and supplier challenges among others. Using data analytics in the business will help you understand these problems and find solutions. A retail chain store, for example, can use a propensity model to monitor their stores around the country and find the ones at risk of shoplifting.
Consequently, the chain store can solve the problem by hiring more security guards in stores that are at a higher risk. Another use of data analytics in companies is the use of data models to limit losses. A good data analytics process can help you figure out the price when clearing stock and to find out the right quantity of products to procure.
3. Does it target the right audience?
Gone are the days when you had to trust your instincts just before product launch or when looking to offer services to an audience. Businesses today know that they need to offer the right product to the right audience if they are to thrive in the business world. Many companies have spent millions of dollars running ads to the wrong audience.
Businesses today can use big data to collect data and come up with sophisticated data insights that can help them target the right audience. In the end, these companies using big data will find it much easier to fulfil their client needs, alter product lines if necessary and tailor their marketing efforts.
Your marketing department can use data analytics to observe changes in client patterns and change their offerings according to the new information. One way to ensure that this is possible is by finding ways to track your client’s feedback, services you offer, and even your competition. If you are still spending thousands, or hundreds of thousands on advertisements with little to no result, then you may have to improve your data analytics processes.
4. Does it standardise and improve company processes?
You should notice the difference in your company processes once you implement a data analysis strategy. There are many ways in which data analytics can help you streamline and standardise your business operations. An effective data analysis strategy, for instance, will reveal any delays in production and predict future bottlenecks.
Your enterprise can use data models to create a demand forecast for your suppliers too. The forecast will show when your suppliers are unable to handle large volumes during holidays and you can standardise your supply chain process by finding the right suppliers.
With the right data analysis strategy, you can improve your company processes for more efficient business. The good thing is that data analytics allows you to streamline the different processes such as production, recruitment, sales and marketing.
5. Does it build skills & competencies for both leaders and team members?
The best data analytics strategy should also improve the skills and competencies of your staff. Leaders should show initiative by embracing data analysis in their daily operations. In turn, leaders can make better decisions through accurate business insights, foresee incoming risks, and build a more successful company.
Team members can use data analytics for tech skills, data analysis skills, and other skills that they can adopt in their day to day operation. For example, companies using data analytics can use predictive analytics to see potential business changes and prescriptive analytics to find out how to respond to such changes. They can then use this information to learn new trends, predict the change of their products or propose different pricing models.
Data analytics can do more for your business
It is quite exciting to implement the use of data analytics in your business. However, your data analysis strategy may not be the most effective one for your business, especially if it did not cross everything on our checklist. The good thing is that you can always find different data analysis professionals to work with on the Pangaea X platform. Reach out to us if you need assistance.
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