Analytics needs vary depending upon industry, the business problem at hand, and the analytics maturity level of an organization. More than a buzz word that drives engagement, analytics is a proven critical business strategy. Coupled with experience and pure gut instinct, a business leader armed with rational structure, such as accurate and timely information, is unstoppable.
But how does one grow into becoming an analytics driven power house, capable of effectively leveraging advanced analytics? To better understand analytics as a strategic component, let’s consider key drivers and four definitive analytic categories:
- Descriptive analytics – what happened? Some estimates indicate that more than 80% of business analytics are descriptive. For “beginners” blessed with loads of data, this is a great place to start.
- Diagnostic analytics – why did it happen? For those privy to understanding the factors that affect / influence events, insight becomes the leading analytic driver.
- Predictive analytics – what will happen? Predictive models are associated with escalated difficulty and value levels. Virtually every organization could benefit from predictive analytics. Organizations that employ predictive analytics can dramatically reduce risk, increase customer loyalty, improve their competitive position and increase revenues.
- Prescriptive analytics – how can we make it happen? As information is optimized, analytic models advance to a prescriptive nature. Leveraging foresight at this point is definitely a game changer.
Simply put, organizations drive towards analytics because they struggle to keep pace in answering questions fast enough. The reality is that savvy business leaders have aspirations that may exceed their organization’s ability for analytics. This is commonly due to lack of scale in internal analytics groups.
Regardless of where your analytic needs lie, this is a topic I’d love to hear your comments on. What fuels your need for analytics? Here’s what I hear with some of our customers:
To experience analytics with Alteryx, watch: Alteryx empowers analysts to solve today's most important business challenges.