Effective business intelligence and high-quality data analysis. Business Information Analysis - Fundamentals Big Data Connectors
Small business in the CIS countries does not yet use data analysis for business development, determining correlations, searching for hidden patterns: entrepreneurs manage to get by with the reports of marketers and accountants. Small and semi-medium-sized business leaders rely more on their intuition than on analysis. But at the same time, analytics have huge potential: it helps to reduce costs and increase profits, make decisions faster and more objectively, optimize processes, better understand customers and improve the product.
An accountant is not a substitute for an analyst
Small business leaders often assume that the reports of marketers and accountants adequately reflect the activities of the company. But it is very difficult to make a decision on the basis of dry statistics, and an error in calculations without specialized education is inevitable.
Case 1. Post-analysis of promotional campaigns. For the New Year, the entrepreneur announced a promotion, within the framework of which certain goods were offered at a discount. After assessing the revenue for the New Year period, he saw the sales increase and was delighted with his resourcefulness. But let's take all the factors into account:
- Sales grow especially strongly on Friday, the day when revenue is highest - this is a weekly trend.
- Compared to the growth in sales that usually occurs under New Year, then the gain is not so great.
- If we filter out promotional items, it turns out that the sales figures have deteriorated.
Case 2. Research of turnover. At the store women's clothing difficulties with logistics: the goods are in short supply in some warehouses, and in some they have been lying for months. How to determine, without analyzing sales, how many trousers to bring to one region, and how many coats to send to another, while getting the maximum profit? To do this, you need to calculate the turnover, the ratio of the speed of sales and the average inventory for a certain period. To put it simply, turnover is an indicator of how many days a store will take to sell a product, how quickly the average stock is sold, how quickly the product pays for itself. It is economically unprofitable to store large reserves, as it freezes capital and slows down development. If the stock is reduced, there may be a shortage and the company will again lose profit. Where can you find the golden mean, the ratio at which the product does not stagnate in the warehouse, and at the same time, you can give a certain guarantee that the customer will find the desired unit in the store? To do this, the analyst must help you determine:
- desired turnover,
- turnover dynamics.
When settling with suppliers with a deferral, it is also necessary to calculate the ratio of the credit line and turnover. Turnover in days = Average inventory * number of days / Turnover for this period.
Calculation of the remaining assortment and the total turnover by stores helps to understand where it is necessary to move a part of the product. It is also worth calculating what the turnover rate for each unit of the assortment is, in order to make a decision markdown with a reduced demand, additional order with an increased demand, moving to a different warehouse. By categories, you can develop a report on turnover in this form. It can be seen that T-shirts and jumpers are sold faster, but coats - for a long time. Will an ordinary accountant be able to do this kind of work? We doubt it. At the same time, the regular calculation of turnover and the application of the results can increase profits by 8-10%
In what areas is data analysis applicable?
- Sales. It is important to understand why sales are going well (or bad), what the dynamics are. To solve this problem, you need to research the factors that influence profit and revenue - for example, analyze the length of the check and the revenue per customer. Such factors can be investigated by product groups, seasons, stores. You can identify highs and sales pits by analyzing returns, cancellations, and other transactions.
- Finance. Monitoring indicators is necessary for any financier to monitor cash flow and allocate assets across various areas of business. This helps to assess the efficiency of taxation and other parameters.
- Marketing. Any marketing company needs forecasts and post-analysis of stocks. At the stage of developing an idea, you need to determine the groups of goods (control and target) for which we are creating an offer. This is also a job for a data analyst, since an ordinary marketer does not have the necessary tools and skills for good analysis. For example, if the total revenue and the number of buyers for the control group are the same in comparison with the target group, the promotion did not work. Interval analysis is needed to determine this.
- Control. Leadership is not enough for a company leader. In any case, quantitative assessments of the work of personnel are necessary for the competent management of the enterprise. It is important to understand the efficiency of payroll management, the ratio of salaries and sales, as well as the efficiency of processes - for example, the workload of cash registers or the employment of loaders during the day. This helps to properly manage working hours.
- Web analysis. The site needs to be properly promoted in order for it to become a sales channel, and this requires the right promotion strategy. This is where web analysis comes in. How to use it? Study the behavior, age, gender and other characteristics of customers, activity on certain pages, clicks, traffic channel, the effectiveness of mailings, etc. This will help improve your business and website.
- Assortment management. ABC analysis is essential for assortment management. The analyst must distribute the product according to its characteristics in order to conduct this type of analysis and understand which product is the most profitable, which is the basis, and which one is worth getting rid of. To understand the stability of sales, it is good to conduct an XYZ analysis.
- Logistics. A better understanding of procurement, goods, their storage and availability will give the study of logistics indicators. Losses and needs of goods, inventory is also important to understand for successful business management.
These examples show how powerful data analysis can be, even for small businesses. An experienced CEO will increase the company's bottom line and benefit from the smallest insights by using data analytics correctly, and the manager's job will be greatly simplified by visual reports.
The main goal of any data analysis is to find and discover patterns in the volume of data. In business analysis, this goal becomes even broader. It is important for any leader not only to identify patterns, but also to find their cause. Knowing the reason will allow you to influence the business in the future and makes it possible to predict the results of an action.
Data analysis goals for the company
If we talk about business, then the goal of every company is to win the competition. So data analysis is your main advantage. It is he who will help you:
- Reduce company expenses
- Increase revenue
- Reduce the time spent on the execution of business processes (find out the weak point and optimize it)
- Increase the efficiency of the company's business processes
- To fulfill any other goals aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the company.
This means that victory over competitors is in your hands. Don't rely on intuition. Analyze!
Data analysis goals for departments, divisions, products
Oddly enough, but the goals listed above are fully suitable for analyzing the activities of departments, analyzing a product or an advertising campaign.
The goal of any data analysis at any level is to identify patterns and use this knowledge to improve the quality of a product or the work of a company or department.
Who needs data analysis?
Everyone. Indeed, any company, from any field of activity, to any department and any product!
In what areas can data analysis be applied?
- Manufacturing (construction, oil and gas, metallurgy, etc.)
- Retail
- Ecommerce
- Services
- And many others
Which departments can be analyzed within the company?
- Accounting and finance
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Administration
- Other.
Indeed, companies from any sphere, any departments within the company, any areas of activity can, should and should be analyzed.
How BI Analysis Systems Can Help
BI analysis systems, automated systems analysts, big data for analyzing big data, are software solutions that already have built-in functionality for processing data, preparing them for analysis, analysis itself, and - most importantly - for visualizing the analysis results.
Not every company has an analyst department, or at least a developer, who will maintain the analytical system and databases. In this case, these BI-analysis systems come to the rescue.
There are more than 300 solutions on the market today. Our company settled on the Tableau solution:
- In 2018, Tableau became the leader in BI solutions research by Gartner for the 6th time
- Tableau is easy to learn (and our workshops prove it)
- No developer knowledge or statistics required to fully get started with Tableau
At the same time, companies that already work with Tableau say that it now takes no more than 15 minutes to compile reports that were previously collected in Excel in 6-8 hours.
Don't believe me? Try it yourself - download a trial version of Tableau and get tutorials on how to use the program:
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