Analytics refers to the skills, technologies and sets of practices to facilitate a continuous examination of an institution’s performance. The objective of analytics is to develop new insights and knowledge on performance by drawing inferences from data and statistical procedures. Analytics also employ statistical analysis that includes predictive modeling, fact-based management, and explorative analysis. Analytics are imperative inputs while making important decisions that are critical for the future of the business. Analytics can help you to arrive at sound decisions that are favorable to the current conditions of your organization, its future and the effects of maintaining the status quo.
There are various types of analytics that can be applied in your company. They include:
- Decision analytics – they support the decision made by the management by employing visual analytics. The various modes reflect an informed reasoning.
- Descriptive analytics – they assist in gaining insight from the historical data from reports, scorecards, and clusters.
- Predictive analytics – this type of analytics exploits predictive modeling by employing both statistical and machine learning techniques.
- Prescriptive analytics – it is imperative in decision making since it recommends sound decisions to the management through optimization and simulation.
By using analytics in your company, you can enjoy a wide range of benefits. These include:
- They improve the process of decision making. In a company, every decision arrived at by the management is dependent on the available data and trends. With them, you and the other stakeholders can observe the most viable trend for the company and make the relevant decisions
- They also speed up the decision-making process. As mentioned, analytic use various models and approaches and these help in analyzing various aspects of the business. When the information is brought together, you can draw conclusions easily unlike when using unilateral human methods that are slow and prone to error.
- They also align the company to its strategy. Your company always pursues a given strategy that you consider to be viable. Analytics provides information on the strategy by highlighting its future and the need for change. Of importance is that analytics will explain the repercussion of your company sticking to its current strategy and the need for change.
- Analytics also helps in responding to the needs of various by providing timely data. The data collection and compilation using the various methods takes place at definite intervals. You and other stakeholders in the company who may want to exploit the data are assured of its timely delivery.
- They also assist you in sharing a company’s information with a wider audience. The information derived from analytics is comprehensive and concrete. An employee may not be in a position to present all the information to stakeholders without erring. However with analytics, reports and trends can be presented to the parties who have interests in the company.
Companies continue employing analytics to analyze massive and complex data. The need for a constant change in the strategies adopted by the management requires the identification of trends and their viability. Analytics are, therefore, important inputs in your company decision making and hastening the process. You should exploit them to stay relevant to your strategies.
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