As per Forbes, 53 Percent of the businesses have now adopted Data Analytics as a core part of their strategy to stay strong in the market. This number is up from the mere 17 percent as of 2015. The fastest adopters leveraging Data Analytics hail from the Telecom and Financial services industries. And so, it becomes immediately clear by looking at these numbers that Big Data and Analytics are taking the business world by storm. To fuel this storm, the need for skilled Data Analytics Professionals will only go up.
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In this post, we will take a dive into the subject and see the reasons as to why businesses are seeking more and more Data Analytics professionals.
Let us get started!
Market Analysis
Analyzing the current market trends and its future position is one of the most important tasks for a business operating in any industry. As the user-ecosystem and transactions move online, businesses are collating this data together to analyze and identify the insights. Often referred to as ‘mining,’ market analysis by crunching the huge data sets allows decision makers to gauge their brand position, customer/client behavior, inventory forecasts, sales projections, risks and threats, research and development, and overall customer experience. Running operations on the bulk data reveal hidden patterns and insights of strategic importance that businesses can leverage to outrun their competition in the market. No wonder why Data Analytics professionals are in such high demand.
Efficiency Equals Growth
It is not just about capturing the market share, pushing the sales and constantly innovating new products/services to stay afloat in the market. There are a lot many internal operations and processes within a business that can be optimized for getting a significant boost in the ROI through improved efficiency. This is what most of the Data Analytics professionals do for businesses i.e. Driving efficient processes and operations by analyzing insights from the organization’s internal data. For example, a manufacturing business might be operating its plant for 23 percent annual ROI. However, upon analysis of the raw material consumption, manpower, energy used and wastage, a Data professional might conclude that removal of some redundant processes, better placement of manpower, and accurate procurement of raw material can jump the ROI to 29 percent.
Better and Faster Decision Making
Days, when the organizations used to make decisions based on educated guesses or partial knowledge and presumptions, have long gone. Today’s business enterprises make decisions based on the information which mostly is real-time! These decisions might be related to the marketing strategy, Research, and development, customer acquisition, increasing sales, etc. Also, the execution has become lightning fast since the organizations do not have to wait for a long decision-making process by the board. For example, a newly opened medium-sized Retail Store in a city can design the most optimum loyalty program seamlessly to drive initial customer traction.
Innovation and Problem-Solving
Earlier, Product innovations and problem-solving through services were majorly driven by whims and the most ‘obvious’ obstacles for people. For example, before there were automobiles, an ‘automated/mechanical’ vehicle was obviously desirable. Same goes for the internet, smartphones, etc. The point is, these products went into mass adoption by a lot of trial and error. Trial and error does cost a lot of time and effort. However, thankfully with the Data Analytics powering the mainstream innovation and improvement cycle, businesses are now able to save a significant piece of time and energy. Data Analytics professionals are able to give a fairly informed ‘sketch’ of the existing market/industry challenges, and the teams can work to solve them effectively without a hit and try!
Cost optimization
A challenge every business wishes weren’t there is ‘cost.’ In its lifetime, a typical business makes multiple efforts at different scales to reduce costs including operating cost, overhead costs, manufacturing costs, cost of servicing, marketing costs, etc. While earlier this challenge used to fall in the ‘trial & error’ category, data-driven businesses can bypass it. Data analytics allows the enterprises to visualize the points where costs can be reduced without affecting the output. This is one crucial aspect for businesses that are being augmented by Data Analytics professionals globally.
Driving Enhanced Customer Experience
An enigma for every business is ‘how to provide the best customer experience’ to their audience. Why? Statistics say that as high as 86 percent of the buyers are willing to pay more for the same product/service if the customer experience is great. Companies have been experimenting on this riddle for long with loyalty programs, referral rewards, long-term brand benefits, etc. Though, with a team of Data Analytics professionals, they can easily find out what ticks their audience’s expectations when it comes to an immersive brand experience. For example, an airline might find out that more jet-miles/reward points earn them a better customer satisfaction rating. Or, a hotel chain might discover that increasing the room-pricing in the off-season does not have any impact on their average guest rating.
As an aspiring Data Analytics Professional, which of the above reason would compel you to improve a business? Let us know in the comments below!