The 5 steps to help you add value to data analytics

Businesses both big and small understand that there is a huge amount of hype surrounding the world of data analytics at the moment. Whilst some may presume it’s just a phase, data analytics is certainly here to stay. Understanding and processing the data your business collects is necessary to make insightful business decisions. Perhaps now is the time to hop on the analytics bandwagon and join this data revolution.

Choosing to join the data revolution is the easy bit. Many companies don’t understand how to harness the data they collect in order to access its true value.

So, how do you add value to your business through data analytics?

Step 1: Focus on the right data

Identifying the correct data to analyze, ensures that your business will make decisions that lead to valuable insights. With so much data and from such various sources it is critical you focus on the right data in the planning stage. To ensure this right data is selected, try segmenting your various data into categories. This segmentation will allow you to see your data clearly, and therefore permit you to select the data that needs to be analyzed.

Step 2: Establish effective business rules

When dealing with data, a company’s biggest struggle is dealing with the complexity of data analytics. It is crucial, therefore that all users get involved.  Discussing the data with various employees of different departments will enable the staff to identify business rules from the get go. Once these rules are in place it will be easy to determine a successful solution for this complex analysis.

Step 3: Commence analysis across all departments

Once the business rules are in place, you can now begin the applicable analysis across all departments. Communication is key to this process running smoothly and consequently collaboration will simplify and speed up the process of analysis.

Step 4: Uphold regular maintenance

For data analytics to successfully achieve your business goals, continuous attention is vital. As your business grows your data volume will grow. The analytics team will have to keep up with the demand and the ever-changing business requirements. Ensuring that the system is kept up to date and continuous attention is paid to the data, it is certain that your company have built a valuable and efficient analysis system.

Step 5: Ensure the system is user friendly

It is vital that the system you establish is user friendly. It is all well and good if the storage and processing runs correctly but if the system isn’t accessible to all users, the procedure of analysis will not run efficiently. Take the time to train your staff. This will guarantee that they understand the system and that they are analyzing the data correctly in a way that will prove to be of great value to your business.