How Data Analytics Help Drive Better Business Decisions

The techniques for data analytics include an analysis of data, such as calculating the total number of blue and green patio umbrellas that had been sold during the summer season. The analysis of data can be used to help business managers to make decisions for improving the business operations. The structured data can be easily categorized, such as the data for the addresses of the customers, but the unstructured data, such as the feedback from customers, requires a special method for organizing the data into categories, which simplifies the process for evaluating the unstructured data.

Information for Business Decisions

There are usually costs that are associated with business decisions. Some new procedures for sharing documents with employees would require additional costs for monthly expenses for storing the files on a cloud. A manager could evaluate the information about contracts to make a decision about the costs for a faster process for contracts, such as by sharing the contract files with several employees.

Quality of the Information for Business Decisions

The quality of the information affects the quality of the business decisions. If several customers have physical addresses in the same community in a city, then a manager could justify the costs for a new office location in that community by using the information about the addresses to verify a huge demand for services in that community. The information about the addresses must be accurate to control problems from the decision for opening the new office.

Data Analytics for Business Decisions

A company manager may have an idea for a new service, such as multiple shipping options, but may not feel confident about the public opinion about the service. The files for customer feedback are an important source of information for a manager who wants to research information about the feedback from the customers who had suggested new services, such as customers who had wanted to be offered two different delivery options for shipments. The decision about offering multiple shipping options would be partially based on the feedback from the customers.

Benefits from Unstructured Data

The unstructured data includes videos, pictures, email messages and feedback from employees and customers. The complaints, compliments and suggestions cannot not be easily identified if the feedback has not been evaluated and separated into categories. The techniques for unstructured data analytics, such as for evaluating customer comments, are important for identifying business problems.

Benefits from Structured Data

The structured data includes uniform types of data, such as the data for the account numbers, phone numbers and physical addresses of customers. The physical addresses would include a street number, street name and a city name, which are uniform types of data. The structured data would also include the different colors for products and the order number for an order from a customer. A manager could use the information about the number of orders for a product to evaluate the popularity of a product.

Purpose of a Database for a Business

A database is used to store the computer data for a business, but the data must be organized into categories, which would help a manager to evaluate a customer complaint, such as about the color blue for a brand of chairs or about some problems from a hand chisel. The information about the purchasing habits of the customers could be used to make decisions about which table lamps should be put on display in a showroom.

Business Decisions for New Procedures

The decision for implementing a new procedure could affect other procedures, such as a decision for using styrofoam packing peanuts instead of packing paper for customer orders that are packed in boxes. The information about the costs for the styrofoam peanuts and for the packing paper would be important factors for the decision. The information about the labor costs would be difficult to evaluate because the styrofoam peanuts are poured into a box, but the packing paper must be carefully stuffed around the items in a box.

Effective Decisions for Business Operations

The techniques for data analytics are important for evaluating the information for making a decision. With some methods for accurately categorizing information, managers can use feedback to enhance the quality of business decisions.