It seems like there isn't a day that goes by where new technologies are being introduced or sunsetted in an effort to keep up with the dynamic digital landscape. In an ever-evolving digital world, it's only natural that business practices and technologies evolve in tandem.
Two such practices are always at the forefront of this conversation due to their importance to organizations' digital presences: business analytics and business intelligence.
Business Analytics & Business Intelligence: Understanding the Difference
While both practices are vitally important to an organization's healthy digital presence, business analytics and business intelligence are somewhat different. Nevertheless, understanding how both processes work is paramount in developing a sound digital strategy.
By harnessing the power of both business analytics and business intelligence as individual services, organizations can understand how powerful both are when used in collaboration.
Business Intelligence
Business intelligence is often defined as the process that organizations use to generate relevant data reports that can be used to further develop strategy. Business intelligence systems usually consist of four main parts.
Data Warehouse
This is where all important company data (from both external and internal sources) is stored. These locations often prioritize the safety of all stored data while remaining easily accessible to applicable employees.
Business Performance Management (BPM) Implementations
BPM tools are vital in benchmarking any progress made towards an organization's goals. These tools often present this data on dashboards where viewers can easily digest the given data.
The User Dashboard
This is where most eyes will be glued. These dashboards display all relevant information with regard to an organization's goals and often feature data reports and easily digestible scorecards. Better yet, they are often completely customizable so that the most important data is always a click away.
Business Analytics or Data Management Implementations
Business analytics (or data management) tools crawl and flag information throughout the data warehouse. That data can then be used by organizations to identify areas of opportunity or those that need further optimization.
Business Analytics
Now we can begin to see how business analytics works best as one part of the entire makeup of business intelligence practices. Essentially, business analytics takes the data found using business intelligence practices and turns it into actionable insights that organizations can use to meet goals.
There are four recognizable facets of business analytics. While each can be used individually to gather valuable data, organizations tend to use each in some capacity to get a more complete picture of their data across the board.
Descriptive Analytics - "What Happened"
Dashboards and scorecards that present an organization's most important data are usually made up of descriptive analytics. This allows any viewer to get a better understanding of any anomalies that are occurring or have occurred.
Diagnostic Analytics - "Why it Happened"
Diagnostic analytics help organizations to understand why something has happened or will happen. Drill-down data is used to find historical correlations. By looking at this data as a whole, diagnostic analytics can identify repeating patterns of historical behavior, allowing organizations to focus on areas of optimization or better prepare for the future.
Predictive Analytics - "What Will Happen Next"
Predictive analytics are used every day in countless industries and offer organizations a prediction of events that are likely to happen. This powerful practice helps retailers to understand future consumer spending habits, allows medical organizations to pre-determine patient illnesses, and can even be used to help determine the outcome of court cases.
Prescriptive Analytics - "What Should We Do Next"
If all other forms of business intelligence are about the "what's" and "why's" of data anomalies, prescriptive analytics are all about taking action. This practice leverages optimization opportunities and decision modeling to help determine the best actions to take for the best possible outcome.
Analytics in Action - Quantum Metric
Based out of Colorado Springs, Quantum Metric began with the singular goal of improving how organizations use their data. Using a groundbreaking process called Continuous Product Design, they aim to help businesses understand their customers' needs and build digital products faster and better.
By harnessing the power of accurate and detailed analytics practices, Quantum Metric has made a name for itself by helping organizations alleviate the frustration that can come with data unfamiliarity. After an organization understands the "how" and "why" of what they're seeing, Quantum Metric can take it to the next level by optimizing marketing campaigns and tracing the customer journey for an overall enhanced customer experience.
Google Cloud and Quantum Metric are proud to have partnered together to deliver unparalleled cloud and technology support to strengthen customers in a diverse range of industries. In addition to its partnership with Google Cloud, Quantum Metric is also a partner to C2C Global. Visit our website today to learn more about becoming one of our partners.
