How Analytics Is Used In Everyday Business

Everyone uses analytics. We may not realize it, but our ability to rapidly search, suggest, and make small predictions in daily business. Analytics are so common, in fact, that we don’t even notice the role data analysis plays in regular operations. This powerful tool goes well beyond social media marketing, and it’s primed to grow even more important in the near future. Learn how analytics is used in everyday business. 

Common Analytics

Analytics are part of regular decisions. Simply deciding the deli line at lunch is a bad time-management option involves rudimentary analytics. Business decisions are a bit more complex, but they aren’t restricted to the IT department.

If your business offers credit cards, you use predictive analytics to decide whether or not to give a customer a credit extension. You use analytics to choose which potential customers should receive credit card pre-approval notices. You use analytics to handle just about all customer service tasks based on the available data. You can even determine if a charge is likely fraudulent based on simple research and reasoning. Analytics boost a business’s potential, and there are more opportunities for analytics to make a difference today than ever before.

You Have More Data for Analytics than You Realize

First of all, even if you run just one application, you’re generating data. Most software applications automatically record and store some level of user data. It allows them to function more smoothly, and it allows troubleshooters to walk back through recent processes to see what went wrong. That data isn’t just applicable to software performance, though. You can gain valuable information about how your employees work and where you can make changes to improve productivity. That’s far from the data’s only use, and it’s far from your only source of data. The more applications your business uses, the more data you generate.

On top of this, you should have access to customer feedback reports, website data, and product reviews. All of these sources only scratch the surface. The fact is, businesses are just as involved with big data as customers are. Your smart watch can tell you how far you ran, how many calories and fat you burned, how many steps you took, where you’ve been, and even how quickly your heart is beating. Analytics can provide a real-time monitoring system for your business’s health. The more data you acknowledge and use, the more accurate your health report will grow.

Everyone Is Qualified to Handle Analytics

In recent history, analytics belonged solely to the great vaults of the nerds, namely, IT departments. The very word “analytics” may send a shiver down your spine. In truth, Business Intelligence has caught up with Big Data, and just about anyone can wield the advanced analytics once reserved for the IT department. Software with intuitive dashboards and user-friendly controls, allows decision makers to search across multiple datasets and compile any report they need, without a middle-man. Paired with the growth of data both within and outside your business, new analytics software is touching more parts of everyday business than ever before.

Everyone needs and uses analytics. In today’s business world, analytics are available on a grander scale than ever before. Employees at every level of your business already use analytics as part of daily business. As Big Data grows, the role of everyday analytics will continue to grow with it.