What is Business Analytics?
Business analytics is the process of gathering data, using data analytics, business intelligence and statistical methods to find trends and patterns in the data. The findings can be applied in various ways, all ultimately aimed at helping devise profitable strategies for the future of the business and the organization.
Business analytics training, among other things, will help you understand the different types of analytics that you can deploy for specific stages of the analytics process and for achieving specific goals at each stage. There are three types of business analytics – descriptive analytics, predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics. Read on to understand further.
What is Descriptive Analytics?
Descriptive analytics, as the name suggests, is a simple process of describing data to make it understandable.
It has to do with the efforts made in the past towards the goal of optimizing profits and developing the business. Descriptive analytics is about answering the question “what happened” or “where do we stand”.
For example, if we want to summarize the outcomes of sales and marketing efforts of the past, descriptive analytics would help us understand what went well, what didn’t go well, how many leads were generated, how many deals were closed, which advertisement performed well, which social media campaign resulted more leads, which sales rep closed more sales, etc.
Descriptive analytics is not about suggesting any remedies and recommending any plans for the future. It is merely about helping all stakeholders visualize the prevalent picture in a quantified manner, using charts and graphs.
What is Predictive Analytics?
Predictive analytics uses understanding of past data to make predictions for the future. This It is currently a hot topic in the business world, particularly in the SaaS world. Statistical models and machine learning techniques are applied to databases to accurately predict business outcomes for the future.
For example data pertaining to customer profile, their purchase habits, past behavior may be subject to algorithms to predict which customers are more likely to buy the company’s products or services in the future, so that sales teams may focus their efforts towards those prospects and customers.
Predictive analytics involve automated algorithms for making predictions.
What is Prescriptive Analytics?
Prescriptive analytics, which is a relatively new branch of analytics, deals with seeking answers to the question, “what should we do”.
Like predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics also uses statistical algorithms powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. It can be used to mitigate risk, prevent fraud, increase efficiency and guide stakeholders on the path forward with optimized options for probable success.
Business analytics training can help you get a grip on the three types of analytics.