Learn how to determine your focus and how to determine the kind of analysis you need so that you can find the right data analytics software for your needs.
Data analytics has helped transform how companies do business in the 21st century. 48 percent of companies had invested in Big Data analytics in 2016. The rationale for doing so is clear. When you save and analyze so much of your own data, you can comb that data to find actionable intelligence to improve your company’s decision making. In certain cases, that data analysis can help you to forecast the future.
However, recording and storing large volumes of data is only the first step to this process. If you don’ t have the proper analytical software to analyze that data, you are only wasting resources. With so many choices, it may not be quite clear to many business owners what kind of analytical software they should invest in. Here are some tips that can help make that choice clearer.
While generic Big Data analytical platforms are available for businesses to use, you may have a more specific focus or niche you wish to address. For example, if you want to analyze your data for the purposes of improving your marketing campaigns, what you want to go for is marketing analytics software. If that is the case, great choices include programs like Campaign Monitor, Pardot, and Marketo.
Alternatively, you may be interested in a customer relationship management system. CRM software is a very powerful analytics tool that can do many things including help you focus specifically on customer interactions throughout the lifecycle that consumers have with your company. A CRM software suite is an excellent choice if you want to have a more comprehensive focus on customer interactions specifically. These days, CRM software is also becoming increasingly mobile. 65 percent of companies now use mobile CRM .
There isn’ t only one kind of data analytics. You need to determine the kind of analysis you want to perform on the data in question. That should help determine the kind of analytical platforms you invest in. In general, there are four different kinds of data analytics you should be aware of. This includes prescriptive, predictive, diagnostic and descriptive.
Determine the Features You Need
Not every data analytical software suite is equal in terms of features either. First, determine what features you want. Second, do a comparison between different software products to find the program that best meets your needs.
Different features could include things like data mining tools, visual dashboards, reporting tools and online analytical processing. Make sure you know what you need. If you want your analysis to be tied strongly to location, it may be useful to choose a program with geographic mapping tools to help display the data.
Today, it’s not a stretch to say data is king in the business world more than ever before. It has been estimated that 44 trillion gigabytes of data will exist by 2020. Thanks to the powerful analytical software now available, companies are able to transform a resource, data, into a strong competitive advantage that often went unutilized before. Investigate different analytical software packages you could use within your company.
