UNIT IV

Applications of Business Analytics

Overview of Business Analytics Application : Financial Analytics- Marketing Analytics-

HR Analytics Supply Chain Analytics- Retail Industry- Sales Analytics- Web & Social
Media Analytics- Healthcare Analytics- Energy Analytics- Transportation Analytics-
Lending Analytics- Sports Analytics- Future of Business Analytics.

Financial Analytics

Financial analytics is a concept that provides different views on the busine

It helps give in-depth knowledge and take strategic actions against them to improve your
BI & EPM and has an impact

helps you answer every business question related to your business while letting your forecast
the future of your business.

So why is financial analytics important?

-making purposes
Every company needs prudent financial planning and forecasting
The diverse needs of the traditional financial department, and advancements in
technology, all point to the need for financial analytics.

improve the decision-making strategies for your business.

Financial analytics can help you focus o
tangible assets such as cash and equipment.
It provides an in-
the cash flow, profitability, and business value.
Important financial analytics you need to know
-driven world, analytics is critical for any business that wants to remain

performance and make strategic decisions. Here are some of the critical financial analytics
that any company, size notwithstanding, should be implementing.

1. Predictive sales analytics

Sales revenue is critical for every business. As such, accurate sales projection has essential
strategic and technical implications for the organization. A predictive sales analytics involves
coming up with an informed sales forecast. There are many approaches to predicting sales,
such as the use of correlation analysis or use of past trends to forecast your sales. Predictive
sales analy

2. Client profitability analytics

Every business needs to differentiate between clients that make them money and clients that
lose them money. Customer profitability typically falls within the 80/20 rule, where 20
percent of the clients account for 80 percent of the profits, and 20 percent of the clients
account for 80 percent of customer-related expenses. Understanding of which is vital.

and gains useful insight. However, the greatest challenge to customer profitability analytics

3. Product profitability analytics

For organizations to remain competitive within an industry, organizations need to know
where they are making, and losing money. Product profitability analytics can help you
establish the profitability of every product rather than analyzing the business as a whole. To
do this, you need to assess each product individually. Product profitability analytics can also
help you establish profitability insights across the product range so you can make better
decisions and protect your profit and growth over time.

4. Cash flow analytics

You need a certain amount of cash to run the organization on a day-to-day basis. Cash flow
is the lifeblood of your business. Understanding cash flow is crucial for gauging the health of
the business. Cash flow analytics involves the use of real-time indicators like the Working
Capital Ratio and Cash Conversion Cycle. You can also predict cash flow using tools like
regression analysis. Besides helping with cash flow management and ensuring that you have
enough money for day-to-day operations, cash flow analytics can also help you support a
range of business functions.

5. Value-driven analytics
Most organizations have a sense of where they are going to and what they are hoping to
achieve. Th
value drivers. These value drivers are the vital drivers that the organization needs to pull to
realize its strategic goals. Value driver analytics assesses these levers to ensure that they can
deliver the expected outcome.

6. Shareholder value analytics

The profits and losses, and their interpretation by analysts, investors, and the media can
s
calculates the value of the company by looking at the returns it is providing to shareholders.
In other words, it measures the financial repercussions of a strategy and reports how much
value the strategy in question is delivering to the shareholders. Shareholder value analytics is
used concurrently with profit and revenue analytics. You can use tools like Economic Value
Added (EVA) to measure the shareholder value analytics.

Conclusion
Financial analytics is a valuable tool that every organization, small and large, should use to
manage and measure its progress. Done right, it can help the organization adapt to the trends
that affect its operations.

Marketing Analytics

Modern marketing is a data-driven process fueled by analytics. Without analyzing relevant

key performance indicators (KPI), businesses can't tell whether their marketing efforts are
providing the expected return on investment (ROI). Marketing analytics is the key to
evaluating past performance and determining how to improve it going forward.

Marketing analytics is a set of technologies and methods used to transform raw data into
marketing insights. The goal of marketing analytics is to maximize ROI from an enterprise's
marketing initiatives. Marketing analytics encompasses tools for planning, managing, and
evaluating these efforts across every channel.

Marketers use established business metrics, and sometimes create new KPIs, to measure the
success of their organizations' marketing initiatives. These metrics include:

Profitability segmented by demographic

Churn rate
Customer lifetime value
Customer satisfaction
Public perception

Businesses can analyze performance indicators alongside other data, such as customer
profiles or demographic trends, to reveal the causal links between marketing decisions and
actual sales.

Importance of marketing analytics

Marketing analytics makes advertising more effective and automates many rote tasks:

Marketing analytics helps stakeholders achieve a comprehensive view across all

marketing channels, such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email marketing, and
social media. Analytics can clarify the big picture, as well as dig down into more
granular marketing trends.

Marketing analytics tools improve lead generation by providing the insights needed to
optimize advertising efforts and target the most profitable consumers. Better leads
generate more sales and improved ROI.

Marketing analytics provides insights into customer behavior and preferences.

Businesses can then tailor their marketing initiatives to meet the needs of individual
consumers.
 Marketing analytics enables real-time decision support as well as proactive
management. Modern analytics tools make it easy for stakeholders to analyze data as
it comes in, so marketing can be adjusted as required by changing trends, and they
also allow businesses to use predictive analytics to anticipate those trends rather than
react to them.

Benefits of Marketing Analytics

Marketing analytics can benefit organizations' marketing initiatives across all channels.
Enterprises should consider the many applications of marketing analytics and determine
which may be valuable to them.

Understand search marketing

Many organizations access huge markets through search engines like Google, where
consumers often begin their purchasing journeys. Search engine marketing (SEM) promotes
businesses and raises online visibility through advertising on search engine results pages
(SERP). Revenue from digital advertising in the U.S. breaks new records every year, and
search advertising accounts for almost half of this revenue. Businesses can use services like
Google Ads and Bing Ads to expand their reach.

Organizations need marketing analytics to track and optimize the performance of their SEM
efforts. One application of SEM analytics might involve serving different versions of the
same ad to a randomized set of browsers and then comparing the performance of these ads in
real time.

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves adjusting web content and structure to improve
organic search engine rankings. An enterprise can use SEO to reach more consumers and
enhance its brand. Tools like Google Analytics allow businesses to track relevant KPIs and
analyze how their SEO initiatives are progressing and how to improve them.

Analyze social media engagement

More than a third of the world's population including 98% of digital consumers
spend time on social media, averaging almost two and a half hours per day on these
platforms. While SEM drives sales from customers who are searching for specific products,
social media marketing can generate interest and demand from new groups of consumers.
Social media is now the primary or sole marketing channel for many businesses and
organizations, such as crafts sellers on Pinterest, fashion brands on Instagram, and nonprofits
on Facebook. Many social media platforms offer their own analytics tools, such as Facebook
Insights or Twitter Analytics, and third-party options are available as well.

Analyzing data obtained through social media platforms can provide valuable insights for
building business or customer relationships. For example, marketers can set up an account to
automatically post information about new products or features as they come out, use an
analytics tool to evaluate consumer sentiment through comments or reactions without
manually sifting through the data, and then rework their social media marketing as necessary.

Optimize email marketing

Though businesses can use email promotions to reach new audiences, email marketing is
more often concerned with existing customers who have opted in to mailing lists or have
already purchased products and services. Email provides a more direct gauge of consumer
sentiment than other channels, because existing customers are more likely to respond to
surveys or interact with advertised material. Popular email marketing tools include Salesforce
Marketing Cloud, Mailjet, and Autopilot.

Enterprises can use analytics to optimize and personalize email marketing efforts. Analyzing
how customers interact with different email promotions can help businesses target their email
marketing and tailor their messages to meet customer expectations and needs. Enterprises can
use marketing analytics to determine, for instance, whether customers respond well to certain
keywords, emails sent at particular times of day, or links to content on specific topics.

Take advantage of predictive scoring

Predictive lead scoring models leverage marketing data from all channels, as well as internal
data, to create a full picture of customer behavior, advertising potential, and marketing
opportunities. These models use machine learning to build consumer profiles, which
organizations can use to predict how consumers may react to different types of advertising
and outreach. Campaigns can then target individual customers to maximize efficiency. For
example, a predictive scoring system could rank individuals by likelihood of retention and
risk of churning, which could help prioritize outreach to an organization's customer base.

HR Analytics

HR Analytics brings and together to find the application of the data

pool created by HR. Plainly enough, it is a data-driven approach to manage the employees.
The purpose of HR analytics examples can be divided into two subgroups:
(i) Reaching Business Goals
This dimension of HR analytics aims to provide the organization insight into the current state
of operations. Such insights expedite the fulfilment of business goals according to the set
timeframes.
(ii) Data-Driven Strategy Building
It helps build prediction models to identify the strategy that could lead to the optimum return
on investment (ROI) for its human resources.
HR analytics makes it easy for the HR professional to create job offers that can procure them
the best talent in the market, manage and retain them to give a boost to ROI.
Data Points for HR Analytics?
The data is collected across multiple points in the organization to create a pool of employee
data. HR analytics tools collect data like:
(i) Employee performance
(ii) Employee attendance
(iii) Multi-rater or 360-degree reviews
(iv) Salary data
(v) Promotion data
(vi) Employee work history
(vii) Demographic details
(viii) Employee temperament data
HR analytics tools help in a close alignment of employee data and HR initiatives to direct
them towards the achievement of the goals.
Once the employee data is gathered, the analysts feed the same into sophisticated data
modelling programs, run them through the algorithms, and predictive tools to gain insights
that can be acted upon.
The insights could be represented in the reports, dashboards or visualizations. The HR
analytics examples involve the below steps:
(i) Benchmark analysis
(ii) Relevant Data gathering
(iii) Data Cleansing
(iv) Data Analysis
(v) Evaluation of goals
(vi) Strategy building based on analysis
(vii) Plan execution

Practical Application of HR Analytics

The HR analytics examples are slowly edging towards practicality and it finds its use in
below-mentioned areas:
1. Employee Retention
According to the stats from the US employers, the average employee replacement cost is
200% of the annual salary they draw.
When an employee leaves the organization, the cost of on boarding cost of the recruitment
process and lost productivity adds to the total loss to the organization.
It becomes critical for the HR department to contain the attrition rate and it is achievable only
when the HR department adapts to a data-driven approach.
Some of the aspects that drive impact iteration analysis are:
(i) Churn Rates
(ii) Per Department Attrition Rates
(iii) On boarding Experience
(iv) Employee Interview Data
(v) Employee Performance Data
HR analytics helps identify the reasons behind attrition, and develop policies and training
programs to dampen the impact of attrition.
2. Employee Performance
Around 45% of HR professionals believe that performance reviews are not accurate which
makes it difficult to retain the talented employees.
Thus accurate performance evaluation is critical for retention. HR analytics tools are
intelligent and leverage the employee data to identify the key players based on multiple
performance parameters.
As the performance measurement and career progression are interdependent, an accurate data
mining of the two could help HR professionals identify the employee expectations.
For larger organizations, HR leaders can analyze the promotion expectation and average
promotion wait time to determine how the employees can be motivated to perform better and
stay.

3. Employee recruitment
The talent shortage is the biggest nightmare for enterprises. Almost 42% of the employers
recruiting today are worried about the selection of not so appropriate candidate.
The HR recruitment team is primarily responsible for finding out the right from the
pool but before that, they need to develop a powerful ideal candidate portfolio.
This is where what is HR analytics is answered and its role is identified. The data collected
from hiring managers and the performance data of previous hires for the same role are fed to
the HR analytics tools to create an optimized skill set which is desired.
The data which is considered is:
(i) Identify the average number of the applicant after analyzing the applicant pool
(ii) Number of interview rounds
(iii) Offer acceptance statistics
4. Employee Development
HR plays a critical in employee development as a skill gap always exists with new
recruitment.
According to American Employers, 40% of the recruited resource is not ideal for the job but
with employee development programs, the skill gap can be covered substantially.
The HR Analytics tools help human resource management assess the skill needs, train the
employees accordingly and allocate the right resources to the teams. This increases the agility
of the organization as well as enhances employee satisfaction.
Employee development programs are running currently also but digging out the right
requirement is still a challenge. In light of HR analytics, more refined employee development
programs can be led.
5. Employee Engagement
Attracting the best talent to the organization is an art and HR strive hard to achieve it. Having
appropriate employee engagement is critical for an organization to attract and retain the
employees.
As critical as it is to identify the factors that drive employee engagement, it is equally
difficult to find the right metrics.
The HR needs to do Statistical analysis of employee engagement data surveys to identify the
data which leads to better employee engagement.
6. Developing Compensation Programs
Employee compensation is known to contribute 33% to employee retention and performance.
As it still remains the biggest investment by the business expense, its appropriation and
accuracy needs go without saying.
Both internal and external factors impact the compensation plans that is why this area
requires more precise automation.
The HR needs to analyze what the competitors are offering their resources and what kind of
compensation is inducing higher retention.

Overall Benefits of HR Analytics

After thoroughly analyzing the role of HR analytics it can be deduced that it can directly lead
to the operational enhancement and more strategic hiring.
As the organizations are adapting HR analytics tools, the ROI is increasing. Let us take a look
at what are the changes when HR analytics examples are adopted.
(i) Decreased attrition
(ii) Manual task automation
(iii) HR Process improvement
(iv) Refined hiring practices
(v) Enhancement in employee productivity
 HR analytics challenges
HR analytics requires a lot of data handling and this could prove to potential challenge
enterprises need to overcome.
The practical implementation of HR analytics is not easily achievable and some of the
challenges that retard the adoption rates are:
(i) Access to the right skill set who can work with the HR analytics tools
(ii) Aggressive Data Cleansing
(iii) Maintenance of high-quality Data quality
(iv) Data privacy
(v) Data compliance
(vi) Proving the value of reports to the leadership for implementation
(vii) Identifying the impact of strategies on ROI

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain analytics refers to the processes organizations use to gain insight and
extract value from the large amounts of data associated with the procurement,
processing and distribution of goods. Supply chain analytics is an essential element
of supply chain management (SCM).
Supply chains typically generate massive amounts of data. Supply chain analytics
helps to make sense of all this data uncovering patterns and generating insights.

Different types of supply chain analytics include:

1. Descriptive analytics
Provides visibility and a single source of truth across the supply chain, for both internal and
external systems and data.

2. Predictive analytics
Helps an organization understand the most likely outcome or future scenario and its business
implications. For example, by using predictive analytics, you can project and mitigate
disruptions and risks.

3. Prescriptive analytics
Helps organizations solve problems and collaborate for maximum business value. Helps
businesses collaborate with logistic partners to reduce time and effort in mitigating
disruptions.

4. Cognitive analytics
Helps an organization answer complex questions in natural language in the way a person
or team of people might respond to a question. It assists companies to think through a
 Applying cognitive technologies

Supply chain analytics is also the foundation for applying cognitive technologies, such as
artificial intelligence (AI), to the supply chain process. Cognitive technologies understand,
reason, learn and interact like a human, but at enormous capacity and speed.

This advanced form of supply chain analytics is ushering in a new era of supply chain
optimization. It can automatically sift through large amounts of data to help an organization
improve forecasting, identify inefficiencies, respond better to customer needs, drive
innovation and pursue breakthrough ideas.

Important supply chain analytics: Supply chain analytics can help an organization make
smarter, quicker and more efficient decisions. Benefits include the ability to:

Reduce costs and improve margins: Access comprehensive data to gain a continuous
integrated planning approach and real-time visibility into the disparate data that drives
operational efficiency and actionable insights.

Better understand risks: Supply chain analytics can identify known risks and help to predict
future risks by spotting patterns and trends throughout the supply chain.

Increase accuracy in planning: By analyzing customer data, supply chain analytics can help
a business better predict future demand. It helps an organization decide what products can be
minimized when they become less profitable or understand what customer needs will be after
the initial order.

Achieve the lean supply chain: Companies can use supply chain analytics to monitor
warehouse, partner responses and customer needs for better-informed decisions.

Prepare for the future: Companies are now offering advanced analytics for supply chain
management. Advanced analytics can process both structured and unstructured data, to give
organizations an edge by making sure alerts arrive on time, so they can make optimal
decisions. Advanced analytics can also build correlation and patterns among different sources
to provide alerts that minimize risks at little costs and less sustainability impact.

As technologies such as AI become more commonplace in supply chain analytics, companies

may see an explosion of further benefits. Information not previously processed because of the
limitations of analyzing natural language data can now be analyzed in real time. AI can
rapidly and comprehensively read, understand and correlate data from disparate sources, silos
and systems.

It can then provide real-time analysis based on interpretation of the data. Companies will
have far broader supply chain intelligence. They can become more efficient and avoid
disruptions while supporting new business models.
Key features of effective supply chain analytics

The supply chain is the most obvious face of the business for customers and consumers. The
better a company can perform supply chain analytics, the better it protects its business
reputation and long-term sustainability.

Key features of effective supply chain optimization include:

Connected: Being able to access unstructured data from social media, structured data from
the Internet of Things (IoT) and more traditional data sets available through traditional ERP
and B2B integration tools.

Collaborative: Improving collaboration with suppliers increasingly means the use of cloud-
based commerce networks to enable multi-enterprise collaboration and engagement.

Cyber-aware: The supply chain must harden its systems from cyber-intrusions and hacks,
which should be an enterprise-wide concern.

Cognitively enabled:
collating, coordinating and conducting decisions and actions across the chain. Most of the
supply chain is automated and self-learning.

Comprehensive: Analytics capabilities must be scaled with data in real time. Insights will be
comprehensive and fast. Latency is unacceptable in the supply chain of the future.

Retail Analytics

Retail analytics is the process of tracking business data, such as inventory levels, consumer
behavior, sales numbers, and more, to make more informed, strategic decisions. This
includes providing insights to understand and optimize th
consumer behavior, sales trends, operational processes, and overall performance. With

personalized omni channel offers, efficient processes, and quick adjustments to upcoming
trends all of which require retail analytics.

Retail analytics translate real-world business activity into quantifiable data to drive
better business decision-making. This data can cover consumer behavior patterns,
supply chain information, inventory updates, and more. Retailers can operationalize
these insights in numerous ways, including:

Optimizing store layout and design

Iterating on product displays
Improving pricing strategy
Enhancing promotional campaigns
Building comprehensive customer personas
Driving personalized product recommendations

While the sources of this data are endless, not all analytics are created equal. Retail
analytics derived from real-time consumer data collected via mobile app usage are
particularly high-yield.

Retail analytics revolutionizes business decision-making in four main steps:

Data gathering

A team of experts collect data from all retailers, in whichever form they hold it. This is
entered into an analytics platform in an intuitive dashboard, saving time and resources
compared with internal sales teams doing it manually.

Data cleansing and validation

Retail analytics tools and a team of experts comb through the data, removing false entries
and making sure all remaining data is accurate and consistent.

Data analyzing

The analytics platform puts clean data into dashboards, tables and graphs making it
effortless for businesses to analyze performance and inform campaigns. This data can also be
entered into data warehouse tools to inform stock and inventory decisions.

Drive adoption

Retail analytics tools including automated reports, intuitive dashboards and convenient data
files make it simple for everyone across the supply chain to access and learn from the

5 high-value retail analytics use

Behavioural analytics
Properly optimizing the in-store experience requires an in-depth understanding of how
consumers move through the retail space, and customer flow analytics provides exactly
these insights. Provided through tech platforms like Vera, retailers can discover how
traffic density varies across floor space
navigation patterns. In the case of Vera, this data can be collected and analyzed in real-
time, ensuring retailers have the most current information possible.

Behavioural analytics like these enable retailers to make relevant, data-based decisions
on in-store experience design. Instead of relying on best practices, retailers can tailor
floor layouts to match the particular behavioural patterns of their consumers.
Essentially, this technology brings a level of experiential optimization once only
possible on the web to real-world commercial environments, significantly enhancing the
efficacy of commercial spaces.

Recommendation engines
For years, online retailers have leveraged the power of analytics to offer their customers
personalized product recommendations. This innovation has been integral to the success
of ecommerce giants like Amazon. But, emerging technologies like augmented reality
(AR) are helping level the playing field for brick and mortar businesses by providing a
natural platform for deploying this analysis to drive purchasing behaviour.

By analyzing purchasing behaviour and predicting future demand, retailers can deliver
personalized product recommendations through AR-enhanced in-store shopping
experiences. Like online shopping, these custom notifications can be pushed to
consumers according to their proximity and behaviour during the natural points in
browsing. Personalized recommendations can dramatically increase customer
engagement, as research by Accenture has revealed that 65% of consumers prefer
retailers that know their shopping history. Global retailer Auchan deploys a simplified
version of this approach to boost foot traffic at their locations.

Inventory optimization
The goal of inventory management is to optimize the relationship between supply and
demand. While this process was once the domain of educated guesses, managers can
now leverage a deep set of data and analytical tools to make stocking decisions. For
Kroger has been using an in-house analytics
team to analyze everything from economic trends to shopper behavior to accurately
forecast demand for years.

One of the most exciting innovations in this area is the use of real-time customer flow
statistics to anticipate inventory needs. Instead of relying on relevant historical data to
project demand, retailers can also pull data from across the entire retail enterpr ise to
make stocking decisions. While this inventory management model is preferable in

consumer behavior like has been seen throughout the pandemic. Having comprehensive
and current data empowers inventory managers to identify trends and respond
appropriately.

Predictive pricing
Price is one of the most powerful levers in commerce, and the increasing availability of
data and analytical tools gives retailers an even better grasp of it. Now, retailers can use
a multitude of inputs to drive their pricing strategies. These include everything from
fundamentals like the cost of goods sold and competitor pricing to advanced analytics
like weather forecasts and real-time customer behavioral data. With this data, retailers
can use analytics to predict the ideal sale duration, identify customer price tolerance,
and determine other critical elements of their pricing strategy.

Smart merchandising
From promotions to display optimization, merchandising is the art and science of
selling retail goods, and few retail analytics use cases have a more direct impact on
business performance. Access to store-level data and customer behavior analytics
combined with machine learning-driven analysis are transforming how retailers are
running their in-store campaigns.

The growing use of AR in shopping experiences adds another layer of actionable data to
this trove, allowing retailers to get feedback on their display strategies faster than ever
before. AR experiences serve as a testing ground for product placements, displays,
signage, and other promotional collateral. These applications can then relay real-time
data on the effectiveness of these campaigns, allowing retailers to quickly and cost-
effectively iterate on campaign concepts before committing significant resources.

How to implement retail analytics

Information is power always has been and always will be. While 21st-century
innovations have largely favoured online retailers, emerging technologies like AR have
changed the game for brick and mortar businesses. Now, they too can have access to
real-time data about their consumers to optimize their store layouts, test campaigns,
improve inventory decisions, and more.
For forward-
more about some of the most exciting retail analytics use cases, then reach out. Our AR
platform is powering the next generation of in-
leverage it to grow your business.

Sales analytics

Sales analytics refers to the technology and processes used to gather sales data and
gauge sales performance. Sales leaders use these metrics to set goals, improve internal
processes, and forecast future sales and revenue more accurately.
The goal of sales analytics is always to simplify the information available to you. It
should help you clearly unde
opportunities.

Generally, sales analytics is divided into four categories:

Descriptive: What happened? Descriptive analytics entails tracking historical sales data
revenue, number of users, etc. so you can
currently happening.

Diagnostic: Why did it happen? Diagnostic analytics is examining and drilling down into
the data to determine exactly why something occurred.

Predictive
about past sales and using it to gauge patterns and trends. This allows you to make educated
predictions.

Prescriptive analytics involves assessing

all the data and recommending the best plan of action.

Sales analysis should be a priority if you want your business to stand out in a highly
competitive world, especially during decision-making scenarios.

Here are several benefits of sales analytics for businesses:

1. Promotes Better Decision-making
Access to data from sales analytics provides a company with the capability to make accurate
decisions that can be beneficial in the long run. Companies can utilize sales analytics when
they share the discussion with the workforce.
Working collaboratively allows better analysis and decisions for the benefit of all,
especially when deciding on a marketing or sales strategy to implement.

2. Helps Achieve the Mission Statement

 With quantified values, promote the growth of the business, especially the
analytical process, since it defines a common objective that the workforce follows.
Once these values are quantified, undergo evaluation by employees to better
understand their expectations of them. With well-informed employees, likely
to be more productive.
3. Keeps Your Business Updated
Today, consumers readily change their minds as fads come and go. Most get easily swayed
by seemingly good offers. With sales analytics, it can provide a company insight on the latest
flow in the target market.

Always remember that the fluctuations in the industry occur rapidly. In recent years, you
might see big-scale companies succumb to promising startups. Make it a priority to protect
your business from the unpredictable nature of the industry with sales analytics. With the
data, you can make the right move by innovating according to the current needs and
preferences of the consumers.

4. Boosts Efficiency

The availability of business analytics has made it possible for businesses to improve in terms
of efficiency. Since analytics can rapidly gather large amounts of data and present it
appealingly, companies can decide on suitable plans to reach their objectives.

Remember that analytics can encourage a company culture that values efficiency and
teamwork. It creates an environment where the workforce can readily express insights and
share in the decision-making process.

Additionally, analytics allows businesses to develop better choices, such as the direction to
take or figuring out the necessary steps to reach new objectives.

5. Provides Better Insights via Data Visualization

In recent years, the versions of sales analytics are easy to decipher and even presentable.
Businesses can check out highly comprehensive graphs and charts to aid with the decision-
making process.
With the visual representations of the data, any business will gain beneficial insights more
straightforwardly. The presentation of the data visualization is organized and visually
appealing.
6. Better Accessibility
With the help of sales analytics software, businesses can readily access data and produce
accurate reports. Depending on the sales analytics software your company uses, it generally
allows quick access on any device with Internet connectivity.
The sales team can easily access the progress at any time. The convenient access provides
better efficiency and flexibility, which are both crucial to a fast-paced business environment.
When the sales analytics software using has a quick and easy reporting interface, it
can simplify the decision-making process, eventually resulting in better sales.

7. Transparency of Sales Data

The sales data can provide businesses with complete transparency and serves as a tool for
mentoring the sales team. With the data, companies can utilize the necessary tactics, such
as a cross-sell campaign.
The business has a clear view of the sales tea progress, including strengths, priorities,
challenges, and possible weak points. In the long run, it directly affects sales since it provides
you with control over variables to boost efficiency and productivity levels.

8. Helps Pinpoint Profitable and Slow-Moving Products

The data from sales analysis will allow a business to pinpoint both profitable and slow-
moving products and services.
Depending on the business managing, you can make the appropriate modifications to
the sales and marketing tactics basing on the data and distributing resources for products that
show the highest chances of future growth.

Aside from identifying the profitable assets, the data can also help you identify slow-moving
products or services. allow you to allocate resources efficiently, cut holding
expenses, and prevent over-stocking. The data from the analytics will serve as your basis for
implementing changes in the prices or providing discounts.

Conclusion

Sales analytics is an indispensable tool for businesses all over the globe. Without this must-
have element, your business last long in a highly competitive industry. Depending on
the company managing, finding the right sales analytics software is crucial. With the
benefits that sales analytics provides, making the most out of the tool will keep your business
running efficiently and maintain superior productivity for years to come.
 Web & Social Media Analytics

Web Analytics,
information, analysis, and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of optimizing and
understanding Web usage.

Web analytics uses the data collected directly from a particular business website and Social
media analytics uses the data collected from social media networks.

Web analytics Gathers information from the Business website only. In general, Web
Analytics tells you about your traffic levels, referral sources, bounce rate, and user behaviour
on your website.

Web Analytics mainly used to improve the user experience and conversion rate. Below are
the few important analysis can be done through web analytics,

Where are your website visitors coming from?

On which page of your website they are spending more time?
How are they connecting to your website?
Which part of the day is your website getting more traffic?
How well do you retain users?

In other words, the four important key metrics can be analyzed from web analytics,

1. Total Traffic
2. Traffic Source
3. Bounce Rate
4. Conversion rate

Total Traffic

Total Traffic to your website gives insights about where are you getting more traffic, which
helps you to understand your target market. In addition, you can analyze which hours of the
day and days of the week, you are getting more visits to your websites. Based on this
information you can run a campaign to optimize more conversions.

Traffic Source

Traffic source is about how you are getting most visitors to your website. Is it through social
media, search engines or Referral Sites? Based on that information you can strategize your
marketing campaign or write a blog or focusing on a particular social media network. For
example, if most of your visitors are coming from social media networks, use that
information to brand your business more on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media
platforms to boost your website traffic.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a particular website who are leaving the site after
viewing only one page without navigating other pages on the website.

This could be higher for any number of reasons may be,

Irrelevant content
 Inappropriate designs
Confusing navigation
Frequent pop-ups
Unnecessary ads
Or, Annoying sounds

However, this metric helps you to improve your web design overall.

Conversion Rate

A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who have taken some action on your website
or complete the desired goal; it could be purchasing a product, Sign up for newsletters, etc.

Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics is the practice of gathering data from social media websites or
networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, etc., and analyzing those metrics to
understand insights to make business decisions.

Social media analytics gathers information from social media networking sites and helps

profiles, and, most importantly, build effective business strategies.

There are many tools available in the market to track and analyze social media data.

The most common use of social media analytics is to discover

Sentiments
Opinions
Emotions
Topics

Put together known as Sentiment Analysis.

Sentiment Analysis

It is the process of computationally identifying and categorizing opinions expressed in

a piece of text, especially in order to determine whether the writer's attitude towards a
particular topic, product, etc. is positive, negative, or neutral. Opinion mining or
sentiment analysis refers to the use of natural language processing.
Importantly, the first step is to define which business goal we are trying to address
through social media analytics.
In general, the business objectives include increasing revenues, reducing customer
service costs, getting feedback on products and services, and improving public
opinion of a particular product or business division.
A quick recap of information gathering

Importance of social media analytics

There is a tremendous amount of information in social media data. In decades past,

enterprises paid market research companies to poll consumers and conduct focus groups to
get the kind of information that consumers now willingly post to public social media
platforms.
In the past few years, businesses have rushed to use Web and Social Media widely. Almost
94% of all businesses now use some form of social media to promote their brand and engage
with customers. While companies sprint to master web and social media marketing, the
analysis of data available in web and social media more of a struggle.

The problem is this information is in the form of free text and natural language, the kind of
unstructured data that analytics algorithms have traditionally. However, as machine learning
and artificial intelligence have advanced, it has become easier for businesses to quantify in a
scalable way the information in social media posts.

This allows enterprises to extract information about how the public perceives their brand,
what kind of products consumers like and dislike and generally, where markets are going.
Social media analytics makes it possible for businesses to quantify all this without using less
reliable polling and focus groups.

Health Care Analytics

Healthcare analytics refers to the use of data that offers comprehensive insight into patients
and the conditions that affect or have the potential to affect them. Analytics in healthcare can
also provide insight into the effectiveness of healthcare providers themselves in terms of
productivity, cost and general performance. Essentially, it is all about gathering and
leveraging information to improve quality and efficiency of healthcare services.
The benefits of data analytics in healthcare

The advantages that advanced analytics in healthcare can bring are vast and well-recognised

cific ways that data and

analytics can support healthcare.

Predict risks - As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. By collecting mass

data, hospitals can identify common symptoms and causes of conditions and diseases.

This helps doctors spot when a patient may be at risk of developing a certain health

problem and treat them as early as possible.

Make data-driven decisions With more data at their disposal in regard to patient

medical history and the health of the wider population, healthcare professionals can

make informed decisions about individual treatment and how likely it is to be

successful.

Increase patient satisfaction Insights from data can help doctors to personalise

treatment and improve how they care for patients. Software can even assess the

performance of healthcare professionals and provide feedback.

Improve service delivery Hospitals can use software to predict busier times and

appropriately plan to meet demand, for example by having more staff on rota. This

can help reduce long waiting times and shortages of beds.

Electronic record-keeping - Storing medical records electronically, as opposed to on

paper, also improves productivity by mitigating the problem of having multiple

records. It also enables different healthcare professionals to access the same records

without transporting paperwork between facilities.

Reduce costs With data improving patient care and allowing healthcare facilities to
run more productively, treatment costs and other hospital expenses can be minimised.

Healthcare analytics importance

Despite the pandemic advancing how technology is used in healthcare, the industry is

slow to adapt overall. For example, it has been reported that just over half of hospitals
 have no strategies for data governance or analytics in their day to day practices, and

97% of data produced by hospitals is wasted.

The Health Foundation similarly discovered that, although the NHS generates masses

of data, they lack staff with the right analytical experience to interpret this data.

Consequently, opportunities to improve services such as by improving diagnoses

and day-to-day care are being missed. Similarly, leaders in the industry noted that

the pandemic exposed many flaws within many health care systems with poor quality

of data, time-consuming analytic processes, and staff lacking the training to use data

properly being a common occurrence.

With much of the industry failing to innovate when it comes to technology, it is

important to both understand the benefits that analytics can bring and consider how it

can be incorporated into your organisation. After all, technology is only going to

develop further, and the industry will need to innovate in order to be ready for future

solutions and technology

will play a crucial role in the difficult work of optimizing processes and systems for

Energy Analytics

Energy analytics generally describes the process of collecting electrical data and applying
sophisticated analytical software and algorithms to deliver insights around consumption and
time of use reductions.

Business benefit from energy analytics

1. Valuable insights into your energy data

Energy analytics can provide you with unique insights into your business energy data that

For example, energy analytics software can show you the periods where you spend the most
on energy. It can also help you understand which areas of your organisation are inefficient
and how energy consumption is affected by external factors such as the weather.

2. Improved energy efficiency and reduced energy costs

If you pay attention to the insights delivered by energy analytics and take appropriate actions,

be paying for itself.

As an example, energy data analytics could highlight that one of your buildings uses a
surprising amount of energy in non-operational hours. Further investigation could uncover
that the heating controls for this building are faulty. Taking action and fixing this problem
will likely save thousands over the course of a year.

Research suggest that most companies can save at least 10% on their energy bills with energy
data analytics.
3. It can streamline your job as an energy manager
Energy managers are usually responsible for more than just electricity use. Chances are

renewable energy solutions onsite.

Energy analytics software can connect with all of this data and import it automatically. This
means you no longer have to log into four or five different systems to build a complete
p

4. Automation of time-consuming activities

o Energy management is a role that sometimes involves doing the same things over and
over again. This can include creating and sending out reports, conducting degree day
analysis or analysing the success of a project.
o Energy analytics software can help with this by automating these tasks, allowing you
to spend more time planning and running energy-saving projects and improving the
energy efficiency of your business.

5. It simplifies data sharing and collaboration

o As businesses have begun to realise the financial and environmental benefits

associated with energy efficiency of energy
managers employed by companies.
o Some organisations are even hiring teams of energy managers to improve their energy
efficiency.
o
communicated quickly and clearly.

o In other words, energy analytics software helps ensure that essential energy

place for people in your organisation to see, analyse and discuss energy data.

Transportation Analytics
Transportation data analytics increasingly power mobility information and insights
transforming transportation planning by making it easier, faster, cheaper, and safer to collect
and understand critical information.
While the transportation industry may not be in crisis, it is certainly being heavily disrupted
by multiple forces, including the COVID-19 pandemic. As these changes unfold,
transportation experts must:
 Prioritize projects accurately to guide effective resource investment and make the
biggest impact.
Make informed decisions based on recent, accurate data, not on guesses or input from
a few vocal stakeholders.
Maintain social equity and environmental justice, providing access and support for
outlying areas and the underserved.
Foster public engagement, so that residents, constituents, and public officials
understand, can respond to questions about, and support planned mobility efforts.
Accurately and quickly measure results of transportation initiatives, enabling
adjustment and optimization in real time.
Increasing numbers of cities, transit organizations, departments of transportation, and other
localities are using transportation data analytics to solve problems, prioritize investments, and
win stakeholder support.

Implementation of Multimodal Transport Segment-wise Analysis

With the growth of multi-modal transport, the need for segment-wise analysis is essential.
The primary modes of transportation include roadways, railways, waterways, and airways.

Let us explore the implementation of analysis in each segment:

Roadways
Using analytics for one of the most used modes of transportation, roadways, has several
benefits:

Road Safety Management

Advanced data can be used to analyze where, why, and when accidents happen. With this
data, they can create Prognostication Crash Maps (shown in the image) that analyze data to
shortlist high-risk areas. These maps can help issue warnings to be extra careful at these
locations and help authorities take precautionary measurements.

Road Traffic Management

Keeping a record of automobiles
help us understand how different road designs can influence driving. The insights are useful
for smarter traffic control and identifying congestion in the road layout when planning future
infrastructural developments. The graph depicts the same.

Rail Traffic Management

There is a whole range of possibilities that railways can explore in big data analytics.
Applications in the railway industry include booking, improving security, automatic
scheduling and planning, network enhancement and ticket management. The existing data
from the passenger operating control, reservation system, CCTV, and maintenance depots can
be used to our advantage to yield business benefits in the above areas. Real-time train
information system (RTIS), the Nation Train Enquiry System (NTES), and the control office
application (COA) are some examples where data analytics is used.

Air Traffic Management

Long queues are a top annoyance of air travellers. However, by accessing data of those
travellers coming through the facility, advanced analytics can help airport workers easily
visualize the busiest periods for their security checkpoints. Over time, machine learning-
 powered by AI can generate predictive models that can allow the airport to strategize better
and allocate resources.

Waterways

Ship Monitoring and Route Optimization

Ship monitoring is one of the most critical factors for seamless planning and execution.

data array can be processed through machine learning,

and the following questions can be answered using the same:

safety, and which route is fuel sustainable?

Analytics in Regular Day-to-day Transportation

Ease Traffic Congestion:

Agencies can help ease traffic congestion by using a high occupancy toll (HOT) with real-
time analytics. Based on the traffic, they can dynamically adjust prices and open HOT lanes
at a much higher cost, reducing traffic.

Increased efficiency is finding Parking Slots:

In major cities, people who are trying to find parking slots cause 15%-30% of traffic. New
technologies like cameras, sensors, and geo-tracking and analytics can help drivers find
parking spots.

Analytics can help the transportation industry, especially the multi-modal transportation
system, to be sustainable and efficient. However, with rapid advancements in technology and
data flowing in and out, various factors such as privacy, regulations, and confidentiality must
be taken care of to use data 100% effectively to provide fruitful analysis.

Lending Analytics
 Financial institutions like banks have been using predictive customer analysis for a long time.
But as the complexity of loans increased, so did the need for more complex and accurate
analysis.

Most of the past loan frauds are correlated to the prediction models that were being used for
decades, which were not effective to detect bad loan potentials. But, as the days passed by,
the financial risk factors started to plummet and it became almost impossible to approve bad
loans. Today, thanks to data analytics, the default and fraud probability of loans have
decreased significantly.

1. Customer Selection

Customer selection is the fundamental part of any loan proceeding. While the data

applications with the help of data analytics. This kind of analysis is deemed better as it leaves
no-to-minimal room for errors.

Data analytics take account of the credit card purchases, subscriptions, and loyalty cards then
categorize them into financial profiles. These are used to approve loans that have a better
probability of being repaid.

A customer selection model usually concludes if a customer will be inclined to pay the EMIs
regularly and is safe to grant loans to. But, typically, the financial verifications are done by
business experts with the help of data analytics to understand their financial behavior,

2. Designing Custom Offers

Most of the loan offers are customized to the needs of individuals. If the applican credit
score is poor, they might have to pay a higher interest rate with collateral. If they have faulty
loan histories, they might not be able to secure a higher principal.

In contrast, customers, who were efficient at paying previous loans are entitled to higher
principal and lower interest rates.

Although these elements were always present in loan processing, with data analytics and the
availability of past data, the applicants can get to know the best offers within seconds.
Immediate feedback helps customers make an informed decision quickly, in addition to
ensuring the experts that no bad loans are being distributed.

Data analytics are also being used by financial institutions to customize the promotional
offers that a specific demographic is likely to avail. Small interest rates, longer repayment
terms, and no-cost EMIs targeted to reach certain customers are such examples.

3. Delinquency Detection

It was almost impossible to predict the financial behavior of a lender with older prediction
models. A customer, appearing to be the perfect candidate could pose as a bad loan with their
erratic payments after the loan was approved.
As the problem grew to the extent of jeopardizing the business of the lenders, delinquency
prediction models came into play. With extensive data of past loans, records of transactions,
late payments, partial payments, and failed payments, the models are now able to predict the
risky loans before they are approved.

Delinquency d
individual somehow missed payments and has shown unusual financial behavior in the past,
but is now trying to rework the errors. With ample data available on them, they can check
their financial scores which are usually reversible to understand what went wrong and
decide how it can be improved.

4. Strategizing Collection

Even after probability models are employed, some bad loans pass through the check. When
that happens, the only way to recover the principal is by collection methods. In the past,
customers were categorized by risk factors. And different contact strategies were used to
extract the amount. Which resulted in failures more often than not.

But after data analytic models were introduced to the banking sector, even though bad loans
still went through, the applications could be segmented into micro categories depending on
demographics, financial activity, and risk ratings to employ more effective intervention
techniques.

According to ScoreData, the customers are divided into three categories in collection
analytics.

1. The ones who have defaulted for the first time

2. The lazy ones
3. Self-cure customers
4. Bad debt
5. Those who are beyond any redemption
The first-time defaulters are often the ones who are the safest of the customers but can be
flagged as frauds if the account is new. Hence the collection efforts are marked as low.

The lazy customers forget to pay the bills but are the safest bet among the lenders. They
usually pay after the period is over with late fines and interest. The collection efforts are
marked as low.

Self-cure customers are occasional defaulters and usually are safe bets. Collection efforts for
these customers are medium

Bad debt and point of no return customers are the ones who have a comparatively higher
spending rate than their earnings but usually pay the minimum fees. Collection Efforts are
considered High or non-viable for the borrowers of this category.
Fraud Detection

Credit card frauds, loan frauds, and deliberate payment delays have always been an issue for
lenders. With data analytics and better customer selection, the problem had been handled

activities of a profile.

Data Analysis

Data analysis models provide an all-around view of alarming actions and suspicious
transactions of the customers. It isolates attributes and identifies hidden threats to notify the
banks about them.

Analytical Frameworks

By calculating statistical parameters like standard deviation and moving averages, analytical
frameworks identify fraud patterns in customers. Excessive high or low numbers are also
taken into consideration while screening fraudulent activities.

Cross Channel Monitoring

As the financial sectors became more centralized, all the transaction data of customers are
available to the models. Which data analytics programs can monitor and analyze to prevent
loan fraud.

Easy Loan Processing

The data analytical models were not designed to keep good loans at bay. Moreover, the data
analytics capabilities now make the loan proceedings easier than ever if you have a good
credit score.

As the financial institutions run their business on loans and interests, the faster and safer
proceeding time helps them get the most benefit out of the customers as well.

The Bottom Line

Bad loans will always be there. What would the lenders do if a business goes bankrupt even

are likely to fail loans and categorize them with the help of data analytics.

Delinquency detection, offer creation, fraud detection, and loan collection are also the
benefits of data analytics in loan processing.
Sports Analytics
Sports analytics is the process of plugging statistics into a mathematical model to predict
the outcome of a given play or game. Coaches rely on analytics to scout opponents and
optimize play calls in game, while front offices use it to prioritize player development.
Analytics also play a major role off the field, providing fans with both sports betting and
fantasy sports insights.

sports analytics is the practice of applying mathematical and statistical principles to sports
and related peripheral activities. While there are many factors and priorities specific to the
industry, sports analysts use the same basic methods and approach as any other kind of data
analyst. Establishing parameters for measurement, like hit or fumble rate, and consistently
collecting data from a broad sample is the basis of the analytics process. This data is then
curated and optimized to improve the accuracy and usability of the results.

Sports analytics goes beyond traditional statistics to add accurate analysis to improve many
factors in team performance.

On-Field Applications

Analytics has many on-field applications in a sports environment, including managing both
individual and group performance. Coaches can use data to optimize exercise programs for
their players and develop nutrition plans to maximize fitness. Analytics is also commonly
used in developing tactics and team strategies. With thousands of games worth of data to
study, analysts can look for patterns across a broad sample size regarding formation, counter
strategies and other key variables.

Uses in Team Management

Practical data analysis has plenty of applications for the business side of sports as well. Since
most professional sports teams function as businesses, they are always seeking ways to
improve sales and reduce expenses across their organization. Some sports analysts
specifically focus on issues regarding the marketing and sale of sports tickets and team
merchandise. Modern marketing and fan outreach efforts also rely heavily on analytics to
predict their consumer base and identify opportunities to increase brand engagement.
Future of Business Analytics

The future of business analytics is

amount of digital data every day. In 2020, people consumed a whopping 64.2 zettabytes of
data, according to Statista. To put that number in perspective, just 1 zettabyte provides
enough storage for 30 billion 4K movies, 60 billion video games, or 7.5 trillion songs in MP3

will reach approximately 181 zettabytes in 2025.

ents earning a degree in business analytics will enter a

market with ample opportunity. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
employment of market research analysts is growing much faster than average by a
projected 22% between 2020 and 2030. The job outlook is also above average for related
positions, such as management analyst (14%) and operations research analyst (25%). These
numbers demonstrate the need for qualified professionals to manage all that digital
information and convert it to meet business goals.

Business Analytics Trends

Technology is an ever-evolving process. Naturally, this evolution produces business analytics

trends that professionals must know about to help companies leverage raw data to reach their
goals. These pros must understand the following trends in data and business intelligence to
optimize opportunities for their companies.

Search-Based Discovery Tools

After all, people do it routinely when they turn to tools such as Google and other search
engines to find something. Search queries are second nature to many individuals, but not
every company has user-friendly data discovery technology for this purpose.

These tools make it possible to sift through and find actionable data from disparate sources
more efficiently. This can boost the capacity to find key insights for effective business
strategies that may otherwise be lost in a sea of information. As the number of potential
sources increases, the ability to cut through superfluous information and get to what matters
becomes more essential.

Bringing the power of search-based discovery tools to the internal operations of enterprises
analytics trends shines. Online marketing is
a key initiative for all types of businesses, and an understanding of the data mechanics of
Google and other search engines is critical to its success. The future of business analytics in
marketing is now. Time spent on-page, social shares, where page visits originate from, and
other data can inform marketing decisions and drive relevant traffic.

AI and Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning facilitate high efficiency at substantially
reduced costs. Experts predict machine learning will complete a growing number of customer
service tasks in the future, but the effectiveness of these technologies depends heavily on the
people behind them. Even machines with the capacity to learn must be fed the right
information, and business analysts are often the keepers of these solutions.

AI and machine learning offer widespread applications for businesses. The online publication
Business 2 Community points out that the concepts provide the backbone for elements that
are crucial for business effectiveness and efficiencies, such as personalized marketing,
cybersecurity, talent recruitment, and customer relationship management. While these
technology-driven elements are poised to impact the business environment, they still need the
human touch of business analytics professionals to ensure that their functions translate to
success.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing, the process of using remote servers on the internet to store and manage
data, provides many of the benefits businesses demand. These benefits include reduced

efficiencies, especially when working with teams in disparate locations; and plenty of options
for redundancy management and disaster planning. When utilized correctly, cloud computing
can increase operational efficiency and reduce costs.

viable workflows to pool resources, share information efficiently but securely, oversee data
access to protect consumers, and maintain the speed and ease with which data can be
accessed. Business analysts manage data flow within cloud-based structures, help design and
develop data processes, and analyze both the data and the performance of systems overall to
ensure that business goals are supported.

Predictive Analytics Tools

Predictive analytics will likely play a large role in the future of business analytics. Predictive
analyt
next move. By analyzing historical data patterns in consumer behavior, market fluctuations,
and even societal trends, businesses can prepare for certain outcomes and performances with
increased confidence. This could not only keep them consistently relevant in their industry
but also transform them into industry leaders.

properly interpreted for upcoming plans. If not, negative ramifications might follow. The
work of a highly skilled business analytics professional can be critical for keeping the
purpose behind predictive analytics beneficial and not something that can inadvertently cause
business strategies to hit unexpected snags.

Data Automation

With the amount of data reaching the zettabytes, sorting, storing, and managing it can be an
increasingly challenging and time-consuming process. This is what makes data automation
such an important component for the future of business. Data automation can automatically
take care of the mundane yet critical parts of data management, leaving those in business
analytics roles more time to analyze and interpret gathered findings. It can also be a vital part
of helping businesses overcome any scalability issues they may have.

The key to effectively using data automation is building an effective strategy that properly
curates the automated system. This means the data is stored in a way that makes it easy to
access and use at the appropriate time. Business analytics professionals can be instrumental in
this key process, as they can use their knowledge and skills to build strategies that integrate
sensibility and efficiency into the data automation process.