What is Advanced Analytics?

Through the use of business intelligence tools and methods, modern businesses are more streamlined and efficient than ever. Organizations produce an immense amount of data every day. Harnessing the power of that data through analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence provides business users with deeper insight into organizational structures and simulated future events. So what is advanced analytics? How does it relate to other methods of business intelligence?

Data Mining and Analytics

Data mining is an integral part of advanced analytics. Data mining is an automated system that processes and extracts critical information from the surplus of raw data an organization creates. This information is then scrutinized through descriptive analytics. Descriptive analytics is the method of examining historical data to recognize trends and changes within it. This type of data supports predictive analytics, which is categorized as the use of that parsed data, machine learning, and statistical algorithms to assess future outcomes based on decisions made in the present. The next level of analytics in this analytical platform is prescriptive analytics.

Prescriptive analytics focuses on actionable insight. Descriptive analytics takes the mined data and runs it through a system of processes like pattern matching to identify areas of usability. This structured data is then passed through a process of predictive analytics to conclude possible outcomes based on scenarios statistically. Using this pre-analyzed data set, prescriptive analytics can then recommend specific courses of action that could result in the most desirable effect, depending on the company’s goals. Advanced analytics is an umbrella term for the methods listed above and many other statistical methods used in business intelligence, like event processing, data visualizations, neural networks, and cluster analysis.

How are advanced analytics used?

Since advanced analytics is such a broad term, your specific interests must be addressed before you can assess how this business intelligence model can work for you. Advanced analytics is a versatile system that can be applied to nearly every organization. For example, in the marketing industry, advanced analytics may be used to examine customer information to build more comprehensive demographic models. By predicting consumer behavior based on historical data like past trends, companies can use analytics to target their audience more precisely.

Organizations can also implement this methodology to make accurate predictions about future marketing campaign successes. Retail companies may utilize advanced analytics to help with inventory or warehouse operations. By examining the structured data, predictions, and plans that analytics provides, warehouse managers can adjust their ordering processes and anticipate fluctuations in market conditions.

General Operations Improvements

Many modern organizations employ business intelligence tools to help streamline their workflow and reduce resource waste. Advanced analytics can connect disparate data and help a company to visualize it for use. This data visualization can allow decision-makers in an organization to adjust processes and utilize actionable insight to improve productivity, efficiency, and overall consistency. Through advanced analytics, companies can also identify areas for the potential use of data science technology like RPA. RPA stands for robotic process automation, and it is used to execute tasks that do not require human judgment or empathy, like data entry, copying, or filing. By implementing RPA, an organization can save employees’ time for tasks that require more creativity and human intervention.

Data science technology in business intelligence is a complex subject. This complexity partially arises from how closely tied together each process and system is to one another. This collection of techniques has revolutionized how businesses view operations and given way to an unprecedented amount of innovation. Leaders in data science software technology like TIBCO provide students and business owners with many valuable resources on their website, as well as low-cost software licensing.