How Big Data and Predictive Analytics are Impacting Business Today

“Big Data” finally seems to be making some sense.

True, businesses have tried different methods over the years to access research information and details like customer buying habits and other random data for analysis to help guide their product and service offerings, but historically there hasn’t been many standards or frameworks to compare one set of information to another. It wasn’t always easy to know which pieces of information could be directly relevant versus being just mildly interesting numbers.

But today, tools and technology concepts are becoming available to assist companies get a better handle on their usage of data, to allow deeper dive into research and analytics, and allow them come back with something defined and useful for business improvement.

Predictive analytics, for instance, helps give guidance to businesses in assessing possible future outcomes based on past performance. It isn’t always correct, certainly, but this concept can be a very useful guide in making business decisions for the future.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software helps companies gather data and put it into useful form, and many ERP models utilize the data cloud to expand the accessibility of different data sources. This allows for potentially unlimited storage and access to the data from anywhere, and when integrated with analysis tools can be extremely powerful technology to push business to the next level.

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While it’s generally easy to recall at least the highlights of sales and other business metrics for the last year or so, it can be difficult to quickly access more thorough and past data to find the specifics needed without having to dig through large tables of numbers. Companies can utilize data tools to quickly access necessary data and structure the required analysis. Part of the appeal in harnessing the power of data analytics is finding ways to customize the results for your particular audience. This flexibility allows you to eliminate information that might be useful for others, but not necessarily your industry.

Following are a few examples of how data analysis is being used in business today:

• Rentals: Equipment rental companies have realized multiple benefits by analyzing historic trends, realizing benefits including increased customer satisfaction, reduced workload for employees, preventing fraud and optimizing equipment utilization rates. Many data factors are at play in this industry including rental equipment, external contract and internal maintenance for rental equipment, tools and internal assets, a varied client base, internal staff and contractors, insurance and a number of other factors that link to profitability.

• Equipment Maintenance: Being able to keep track of when your machinery needs to be serviced or the typical lifespan of equipment can be valuable for planning and budget purposes, as well as avoiding costly, unplanned production stops. If historic performance shows one machine or part wears out about every x number of years, runs, rotations, or whatever under average production levels, maintenance or replacement of that machine or part can be planned at an opportune time, rather than halting operations due to a malfunction. Needed parts or technicians can also be scheduled in advance, rather than keeping a machine off-line while scheduling and waiting.

• Sales and Marketing: Focused messaging and attention to detail are critical pieces of the sales equation. When a vendor can access data to produce information about a customer, including their past purchase history, returns, issues, questions, maintenance records and even personal information such as birthdays, this can give a sales executive all sorts of useful information to put a more personalized pitch together for a new or an established client, rather than a generic offer that all prospects are given. Being able to easily access a greater amount of data, pull out the content that is needed for any occasion and make accurate estimates can also help marketing-focused employees stay agile and flexible. New software applications can provide better tools to eliminate guesswork, which helps marketers better connect and understand customer and market needs, as well as better evaluate how their efforts can impact sales.

• Internal Access: Traditionally, access to a company’s information and market research has been the realm of the database manager/administrator. Sometimes they’re the only ones able to find the relevant data in a timely manner and make any sense of it. With new, easy to use data toolsets, companies can now provide more permissions and training to more employees to perform their own queries and conduct their own research. This can include sales executives seeking prospects or current accounts, managers wanting reliable data that can be used to project future resource needs or customer service agents trying to look at customer history to resolve any questions or concerns.