Business Analytics: A data-driven insight into your business

Making Data a Corporate Asset

Business Analytics is a data-driven insight into the company's situation that focuses on:

What is the status of the business?
What will happen if this trend continues?
Can we optimize sufficiently in order to make the most of the opportunities?

If we take a closer look at the definition of Business Analytics, we see that it is about competencies, technologies, and methods for studying historical business data in order to gain insight and drive business planning.

So, it is about gaining a new business understanding, both for the top management and the individual employee, based on data and statistical methods whereas Business Intelligence focuses more on the historical performance.

The right approach to building a Data Warehouse, Business Intelligence, Performance Management, or Advanced Analytics solution is based on collaboration and consultation regarding your needs, understanding how projects are tailored to the individual organization, sound craftsmanship, and a best-practice approach that, as a customer, you can take over and develop further.

Business Analytics is not a project; it is a journey with continuous development, and we have the expertise to work with you all along the way.

Your Business Analytics Overview

Business Analytics is the caption of a wide range of competencies, processes, and techniques that will provide your company with an overview as well as detailed information about the historic performance and correlations between factors in order to drive the future business in the desired direction.

At twoday kapacity, we can help you all along the way from the strategy to anchoring. You can read more about our approach to Business Analytics Strategy here.

Depending on where your business is today in terms of converting data into insights, there are four value-creating areas that we would like to highlight:

Consolidating data sources in a central Data Warehouse so that the entire enterprise has the same basis for analyzing the business.
Monitoring of critical key ratios for the company to react quickly if problems should arise.
In-depth analysis of data and data correlations. When your company no longer needs to spend time collecting data, it can invest its time in really understanding and utilizing the data.
Planning based on the detailed statements of the historic performance and, therefore, a quicker and more precise management of objectives.

Four Business Analytics areas that create value

Where to start and begin with Business Analytics? The following four areas are good examples of initiatives that create value and are an important foundation for further development:

Data Warehouse

The company’s central Data Warehouse is the foundation of the other Business Analytics disciplines. Once the Data Warehouse is in place, there is certainty for consistency in the data and business logic, performance in the queries as well as trust in a well-coordinated Business Analytics solution.

Monitoring

Highlighting the critical key ratios that are important for the company’s business strategy ensures that everyone is focused on what really makes a difference. You can concentrate on running the business because there is always an overview of developments, and critical fluctuations can be identified early. We work with dashboards, KPIs, and standard reporting, depending on the recipient group and the information area.

Analysis

The opportunity for self-service, fixed analyses, and Data Mining are important disciplines in a well-functioning Business Analytics solution. It is decisive to have the option to uncover new, interesting data correlations that are not normally covered by standard dashboards or regular reporting.

Planning

In a lot of companies, budgeting and planning are manual processes that take a lot of time and involve many parts of the company. Using the data collected in the Central Data Warehouse ensures a faster start and an opportunity for a qualified, data-driven starting point for the company’s budgets that can then be adapted to the forward-looking plans. At the same time, a system-supported budgeting process will ensure that the collection of inputs from the different parts of the company can be performed seamlessly and with a clear overview of the applicable budget data.

Use Microsoft Power BI for Business Analytics

Power BI is a series of Analytics tools for analyzing data and sharing insights.

The products are easy to get started with and are therefore particularly suitable for you who is about to start looking more closely at the company’s data. Power BI is free in personal editions.

You can read more about how Power BI can be used in a Business Analytics context on Microsoft Power BI’s blog.