More businesses are beginning to comprehend the value of collecting data, but many seem to have trouble analyzing the information and generating actionable insights. There’s a strong desire for companies to be driven by data, but successfully translating data to find potential areas where action can be taken to boost business operations is challenging.
It’s critical to find service partners that can help your firm get analytical insights that optimize processes to benefit the bottom line. Want to learn how a data analyst can help you? Here’s what you need to know.
What Are Actionable Insights?
First, it’s important to understand what exactly are actionable insights. Starting with raw data, we need to process and organize it into easily digestible information. Then the numbers can be analyzed, conclusions drawn, and insights made. If a course of action can be charted from these insights, one that is beneficial to the company, it is considered actionable. These actions are typically tied to key business goals and must be made in context to your business.
Turning Data into Actionable Insights
In many cases, the type of data you need to showcase can differ depending on the decision-makers to whom you’re presenting. Data analysts understand this and can translate information to help generate the necessary insights to facilitate business decisions.
Distinguish Between Types of Data Analytics
Different types of data analytics can offer different types of knowledge. These include:
- Descriptive analytics: what’s the problem?
- Diagnostic analytics: what causes of the problem?
- Predictive analytics: what’s going to happen?
- Prescriptive analytics: determining the best action
It’s important to distinguish between these types of analytics to understand the information you’re dealing with.
Only Measure What Matters
Define the business problem you’re trying to solve. Once that’s done, any non-relevant data can be filtered out. This narrowing down provides an opportunity to find and identify what needs to be optimized.
Put Data into Context
When you have your data set, figure out what each component means and prioritize it based on its impact on the business. By giving context to data, it’s easier to interpret, and it will provide you with a solid foundation from which to make more strategic business decisions.
Get Help from Data Analysts
The benefits of collecting data are apparent, but you must also be able to generate actionable insights from it. A data analyst can help gather and parse data into easily readable information, which can then be dissected for insights that may help your business. They have the skills and training to provide real-time, global visibility into the people, processes, and devices that run your company. Trust them to find ways of boosting your business.