Strategic decision should begin with a clear purpose of the

organization’s mission and vision, the understanding you live as the

business. Strategic decision is not about how many peope you have in
your company. It is about how many people you can serve. Strategic decisions
are long-term decisions. These are considered where The future planning is concerned. Strategic
decisions are taken in Accordance with organizational mission and vision. These are related to overall
Counter planning of all Organization. These deal with organizational Growth. Strategic decisions are the
decisions that are concerned with whole environment in which the firm operates, the entire resources and
the people who form the company and the interface between the two.

 An important step in all organizations. This process facilitates

organizational learning to take place, improve performance and
organizational outcomes and reduce the probability of strategic failure or
competition. It provides business intelligence reports for organizations to
study and predict the future trends
 A skill and it’s important to learn it and practice. Strategic decision-
making is an essential skill for today’s leaders. It’s not a skill that should be
picked up and used once or twice and then forgotten. Strategic decision-
making can provide your organization with a competitive advantage, and
it’s important to maintain your strategic decision-making skills and continue
to develop them over time.
 One of the most important activities any organization can carry out.
Strategic decisions are decisions that require a high degree of
responsibility and focus on long-term objectives. They need a lot of
knowledge about many things including the processes, systems, and
policies. In addition to that, decisions need to be planned before they are
carried out. Power BI visuals is one such tools which is secured and loaded
with options for making better and smarter decisions.
 Also involves the process of implementation. Strategic decision-making
is all about making the right decisions at the right time. This is the process
of making a decision and then implementing that decision. Decision-
making is not about making a decision, and then not acting on it.
Implementation is the process of actually doing the work.
 A key tool to drive business growth. It is the way to find out what is the
best way of achieving a business objective and what the risks are. This is
why organizations should have a decision-making process that includes a
well-defined set of policies and rules which are adhered to by all. You can
also use different data analytics tools and data discovery tools for helping
you taking better decisions.
Business Analytics
What if you could analyze your past business performances and results, and use that
information to prepare for the future?

That is essentially what business analytics is all about. Business analytics entails the
analysis of data to create predictive models, as well as the application of optimization
techniques, and communicating the results to employees and customers. It utilizes a
data-driven methodology to the business environment, and as such relying on statistics
and data modeling to create insights for the business.

In today’s business environment, every organization is looking for a way to make their
decision making more efficient and business analytics gives them that advantage. What
makes business analytics standout is the fact that it can be applied in several areas.

Importance of business analytics

 Organizations employ Business analytics so they can make data-driven
decisions. Business analytics gives business an excellent overview and insight on
how companies can become more efficient, and these insights will enable such
business optimize and automate their processes. It is no surprise that data-driven
companies, and also make use of business analytics usually outperform their
contemporaries. The reason for this is that the insights gained via business
analytics enable them to; understand why specific results are achieved, explore
more effective business processes, and even predict the likelihood of certain
results.
 Business analytics also offers adequate support and coverage for businesses
who are looking to make the right proactive decisions. Business analytics also
allows organizations to automate their entire decision-making process, so as to
deliver real-time responses when needed.
 One of the apparent importance of business analytics is the fact that it helps to
gain essential business insights. It does this by presenting the right data to work it.
This goes a long way in making decision making more efficient, but also easy.
 Efficiency is one area of business analytics helps any organization to achieve
immediately. Since its inception, business analytics have played a key role in
helping business improve their efficiency. Business analytics collates a
considerable volume of data in a timely manner, and also in a way that it can easily
be analyzed. This allows businesses to make the right decisions faster.
 Business analytics help organizations to reduce risks. By helping them make the
right decisions based on available data such as customer preferences, trends, and
so on, it can help businesses to curtail short and long-term risk.
There is no denying it that business analytics have come to change the dynamics of
businesses and how they operate. Its importance cannot be overestimated, and with
 more and more companies relying on it for their decision-making process, it is
something your business should consider incorporating if it hasn’t done so already.

What is data mining?

Simply put, data mining is the process that companies use to turn raw data into useful
information. They utilize software to look for patterns in large batches of data so they
can learn more about customers. It pulls out information from data sets and compares it
to help the business make decisions. This eventually helps them to develop strategies,
increase sales, market effectively, and more. 
Data mining sometimes gets confused with machine learning and data analysis, but
these terms are all very different and unique. 
While both data mining and machine learning use patterns and analytics, data mining
looks for patterns that already exist in data, while machine learning goes beyond to
predict future outcomes based on the data. In data mining, the “rules” or patterns aren’t
known from the start. In many cases of machine learning, the machine is given a rule or
variable to understand the data. Additionally data mining relies on human intervention
and decisions, but machine learning is meant to be started by a human and then learn
on its own. There is quite a bit of overlap between data mining and machine learning,
machine learning processes are often utilized in data mining in order to automate those
processes.
Similarly data analysis and data mining aren’t interchangeable terms. Data mining is
used in data analytics, but they aren’t the same. Data mining is the process of getting
the information from large data sets, and data analytics is when companies take this
information and dive into it to learn more. Data analysis involves inspecting, cleaning,
transforming, and modeling data. The ultimate goal of analysis is discovering useful
information, informing conclusions, and making decisions. 
Data mining, data analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and many other
terms are all combined in business intelligence processes that help a company or
organization make decisions and learn more about their customers and potential
outcomes.

Overview of the data mining process.

Almost all businesses use data mining, and it’s important to understand the data mining
process and how it can help a business make decisions. 
 Business understanding. The first step to successful data mining is to understand
the overall objectives of the business, then be able to convert this into a data mining
problem and a plan. Without an understanding of the ultimate goal of the business, you
won’t be able to design a good data mining algorithm. For example, a supermarket may
want to use data mining to learn more about their customers. The business
understanding is that a supermarket is looking to find out what their customers are
buying the most.
 Data understanding. After you know what the business is looking for, it’s time to
collect data. There are many complex ways that data can be obtained from an
organization, organized, stored, and managed. Data mining involves getting familiar
with the data, identifying any issues, getting insights, or observing subsets. For
example, the supermarket may use a rewards program where customers can input their
phone number when they purchase, giving the supermarket access to their shopping
data.
 Data Preparation. Data preparation involves getting the information production
ready. This is the biggest part of data mining. It is taking the computer-language data,
and converting it into a form that people can understand and quantify. Transforming and
cleaning the data for modeling is key for this step.
 Modeling. In the modeling phase, mathematical models are used to search for
patterns in the data. There are usually several techniques that can be used for the same
set of data. There is a lot of trial and error involved in modeling.
 Evaluation. When the model is complete, it needs to be carefully evaluated and
the steps to make the model need to be reviewed, to ensure it meets the business
objectives. At the end of this phase, a decision about the data mining results will be
made. In the supermarket example, the data mining results will provide a list of what the
customer has purchased, which is what the business was looking for. 
 Deployment. This can be a simple or complex part of data mining, depending on
the output of the process. It can be as simple as generating a report, or as complex as
creating a repeatable data mining process to happen regularly.
After the data mining process has been completed, a business will be able to make their
decisions and implement changes based on what they have learned. 

What is Descriptive Analytics?

Descriptive analytics is a field of statistics that focuses on gathering and
summarizing raw data to be easily interpreted.

Generally, descriptive analytics concentrate on historical data, providing the

context that is vital for understanding information and numbers.

The field is used across a variety of industries and needs, and can cover a
diverse range of purposes, from inventory tracking to benchmarking yearly
revenues and sales.

The field usually serves as a preliminary step in the business intelligence

process, creating a foundation for further analysis and understanding.
Essentially, descriptive analytics seeks answers about what happened,
without performing the more complex analyses required in diagnostics and
predictive models.

In business intelligence, descriptive analytics is usually the first step and will
result in visualizations like pie charts, line graphs, bar charts, and other
simpler graphical displays.

The field usually employs simpler mathematics and statistical tools (such as
arithmetic, averages, and percent changes) instead of more complex
calculations that predictive and prescriptive analytics perform. It also includes
the initial stages of data aggregation and data mining in most data analytics
software.

Descriptive analytics was used primarily to extract and present information in a visual and intuitive format.

Businesses set KPIs and relevant metrics to be measured, before identifying key data to be acquired.

Then, the analytics systems pulls data from different sources, which includes shadow repositories,

databases and record systems. After data is extracted, it must be cleansed and transformed for analysis.

Preparing data for analysis is the most labour intensive process for data analysts to complete.

Once data is ready for analysis, descriptive analytics will help find connections and patterns in key metric

areas. Techniques used in this process include regression analysis, suppression and summary statistics.

Key metrics are calculated and compared against business goals. The newly discovered trends are then

compared to previous trends. The data is then packaged into graphs, charts and other intuitive formats for

the sake of easy reading.

What was the benefit to businesses?

Companies benefit from descriptive analytics because it streamlines the data analysing process. Most

corporations collect large volumes of data from structured data (forms) and media-rich unstructured data.

By investing in analytics, companies can integrate both data structures for a comprehensive overview of

operations.
With data analytics, companies can improve their productivity because analytics paves the way for new

innovations that will lead to new operational methods that in turn improve productivity.

Descriptive analytics reveals unique insights, trends and patterns in data not found through other

analytical methods by leveraging several sophisticated methods for analysis, like regression, summary

statistics, and clustering to reveal these new patterns. Thereby, opening new opportunities for growth and

cutting operating costs.

Data analytics gives context to vital information. For example, $1 million in sales is an impressive

accomplishment, but if there is no further context to the sales figure, then it is not very useful. Data

analytics provides the context managers, executives and stakeholders need to make the decisions.

Companies collect a lot of data, and analytics is needed to sift through the relevant information. For

example, Google has more than 108 million users, Facebook has 1.1 billion monthly visits, and Amazon

has uniquely 89 million visitors each month. Companies are collecting a lot of data, but it is only useful if

there is a suitable analytics system to sift through the information.

What is the role of analytics in the analytics ecosystem?

Descriptive analytics is part of a larger analytics ecosystem. Planning analytics facilitates the design

process for businesses. Analytics that captures, analyses and processes data when executives are laying

out the corporate agenda for the future. Descriptive analytics is the next part of the data analytics

ecosystem. It attempts to answer the question “What is happening?” by trying to present the current state

of the company through data collection and analysis.

Diagnostic analytics looks to build on the information presented, by trying to answer ‘Why did it happen?’

Diagnostic analytics looks to identify anomalies, the cause behind the anomalies and causal relationships.

Diagnostic analytics uses machine learning, as machines are better suited for finding anomalies and their

causes. Predictive analytics is the next step in diagnostic analytics and predicts future outcomes based
on current data. Prescriptive analytics will take the findings from predictive analytics and recommend

actions to take. With prescriptive analytics, humans have a useful tool in decision making. Alternatively,

analytics can send direct commands to a system.

Key takeaways

Descriptive analytics has changed the way companies operate. Its ability to take large volumes of data

and break it down into discernable trends opens a lot of options. Furthermore, analytics can present

complex information in a visual, intuitive format. By investing in analytics, companies get a better

understanding of how they operate and stakeholders get context for important information, due to its

sophisticated analysis techniques.

What is Big Data?

Big Data refers to massive amounts of data produced by different sources like
social media platforms, web logs, sensors, IoT devices, and many more. It can
be either structured (like tables in DBMS), semi-structured (like XML files), or
unstructured (like audios, videos, images).

Traditional database management systems are not able to handle this vast
amount of data.

Big Data helps companies to generate valuable insights.

Companies use Big Data to refine their marketing campaigns and techniques.
Companies use it in machine learning projects to train machines, predictive
modeling, and other advanced analytics applications.

We can’t equate big data to any specific data volume. Big data deployments
can involve terabytes, petabytes, and even exabytes of data captured over time.

Why Big Data?

Big Data initiatives were rated as “extremely important” to 93% of companies.
Leveraging a Big Data analytics solution helps organizations to unlock the
strategic values and take full advantage of their assets.
It helps organizations:

 To understand Where, When and Why their customers buy

 Protect the company’s client base with improved loyalty programs
 Seizing cross-selling and upselling opportunities
 Provide targeted promotional information
 Optimize Workforce planning and operations
 Improve inefficiencies in the company’s supply chain
 Predict market trends
 Predict future needs
 Make companies more innovative and competitive
 It helps companies to discover new sources of revenue
Companies are using Big Data to know what their customers want, who are
their best customers, why people choose different products. The more a
company knows about its customers, the more competitive it becomes.

We can use it with Machine Learning for creating market strategies based on
predictions about customers. Leveraging big data makes companies customer-
centric.

Companies can use Historical and real-time data to assess evolving

consumers’ preferences. This consequently enables businesses to improve and
update their marketing strategies which make companies more responsive to
customer needs.

Let us now explore the reason why Big data is important?

Importance of Big data

Big Data importance doesn’t revolve around the amount of data a company
has. Its importance lies in the fact that how the company utilizes the gathered
data.

Every company uses its collected data in its own way. More effectively the
company uses its data, more rapidly it grows.

The companies in the present market need to collect it and analyze it because:
1. Cost Savings
Big Data tools like Apache Hadoop, Spark, etc. bring cost-saving benefits to
businesses when they have to store large amounts of data. These tools help
organizations in identifying more effective ways of doing business.

2. Time-Saving
Real-time in-memory analytics helps companies to collect data from various
sources. Tools like Hadoop help them to analyze data immediately thus
helping in making quick decisions based on the learnings.

3. Understand the market conditions

Big Data analysis helps businesses to get a better understanding of market
situations.

For example, analysis of customer purchasing behavior helps companies to

identify the products sold most and thus produces those products accordingly.
This helps companies to get ahead of their competitors.

4. Social Media Listening

Companies can perform sentiment analysis using Big Data tools. These enable
them to get feedback about their company, that is, who is saying what about
the company.

Companies can use Big data tools to improve their online presence.

5. Boost Customer Acquisition and

Retention
Customers are a vital asset on which any business depends on. No single
business can achieve its success without building a robust customer base. But
even with a solid customer base, the companies can’t ignore the competition in
the market.

If we don’t know what our customers want then it will degrade companies’
success. It will result in the loss of clientele which creates an adverse effect on
business growth.
Big data analytics helps businesses to identify customer related trends and
patterns. Customer behavior analysis leads to a profitable business.

6. Solve Advertisers Problem and Offer

Marketing Insights
Big data analytics shapes all business operations. It enables companies to
fulfill customer expectations. Big data analytics helps in changing the
company’s product line. It ensures powerful marketing campaigns.

7. The driver of Innovations and Product

Development
Big data makes companies capable to innovate and redevelop their products.

Real-Time Benefits of Big Data

Big Data analytics has expanded its roots in all the fields. This results in the
use of Big Data in a wide range of industries including Finance and Banking,
Healthcare, Education, Government, Retail, Manufacturing, and many more.

There are many companies like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, LinkedIn, Swiggy,etc
which use big data analytics. Banking sectors make the maximum use of Big
Data Analytics. Education sector is also using data analytics to enhance
students’ performance as well as making teaching easier for instructors.

Big Data analytics help retailers from traditional to e-commerce to understand

customer behaviour and recommend products as per customer interest. This
helps them in developing new and improved products which help the firm
enormously.

Summary
We can conclude that Big Data helps companies to make informed decisions,
understand their customer desires.

This analysis helps companies to achieve rapid growth by analyzing the real-
time data. It allows companies to defeat their competitors and achieve success.

Big Data technologies help us to understand inefficiency and opportunities in

our company. It plays a major role in shaping the organization’s growth.
 Why Is Big Data Important?

The importance of big data doesn’t revolve around how much data you have, but what
you do with it. You can take data from any source and analyze it to find answers that
enable 1) cost reductions, 2) time reductions, 3) new product development and
optimized offerings, and 4) smart decision making. When you combine big data with
high-powered analytics, you can accomplish business-related tasks such as:

 Determining root causes of failures, issues and defects in near-real time.

 Generating coupons at the point of sale based on the customer’s buying habits.

 Recalculating entire risk portfolios in minutes.

 Detecting fraudulent behavior before it affects your organization.