In almost every industry, data reigns supreme. It’s how businesses, corporations, and organizations optimize their performance to perform more effectively and efficiently, maximize their profit, and make more strategically-guided decisions.
This trend won’t subside as businesses seek more sophisticated approaches to gather and interpret operational and customer data to create evidence-based strategies and initiatives.
So, how exactly do businesses achieve all that? By studying the data and using the techniques and processes of data analytics. Let’s define data analytics and look at its role in empowering businesses.
What is Data Analytics?
Data analytics is the science of analyzing raw data to draw conclusions. As such, data analysts examine and organize large data sets by identifying trends, developing charts, and creating visual presentations to help businesses make more strategic decisions.
Luckily, as technological advances have grown, many of the techniques and processes of data analytics have been automated into mechanical methods and algorithms that work over raw data for human consumption.
Still, data analysts spend a lot of their time searching for and interpreting valuable insights and trends to communicate with business owners and stakeholders on what they learned and how to improve.
Three Ways Data Analytics Empowers Businesses
Data analysts use data analytics to draw meaningful insights, solve problems, and empower businesses in several ways. Companies then take these data-driven insights to make informed decisions, ensuring they stay relevant and ahead of their competitors.
1. Gaining Insight Into Target Markets
Knowledge is power. Businesses using data analytics receive the digital footprints of their consumers. This means they can access their preferences, needs, browsing, and purchasing habits.
Thus, by analyzing the data collected from a business’s target markets, companies can swiftly identify trends and patterns and customize their products or services to fulfill the wants and needs of their consumers.
Better yet, the more an organization or company utilizes data analytics to know more about its customers, the more it can grow customer loyalty and satisfaction. Conversely, if businesses don’t use data analytics or ignore even some of the data, they risk losing their customer base.
2. Enhance Decision-Making Capabilities
By providing the data directly to businesses and business owners, data analytics empowers them to make faster, better, and more specific business decisions. More importantly, it ensures they avoid spending too much time, energy, and money on effective and efficient strategies or operations.
By making decisions based on the data, leaders, and employees are inspired to be more proactive in identifying and fulfilling opportunities. Data analytics helps team members avoid getting bogged down in complex calculations or analysis through automated systems like leveraging machine learning algorithms.
However, data analysts and business owners should be aware that these systems are not fool-proof. Skilled professionals must still run them to ensure the analysis and collection process does not render inaccurate or misleading information.
3. Improve Operational Inefficiencies and Minimize Risk
As the saying goes, “No risk, no reward.” While it is true that running a business, company, or organization requires a certain amount of risk, proper data analytics minimizes that and then some.
Data analytics reveals a business’s operational inefficiencies. It enables the company’s leaders to improve them by streamlining their operations, such as removing hiccups in the manufacturing process or highlighting underperforming products.
In turn, companies also use this data to effectively anticipate and mitigate potential risks through proactive measures like predicting future market growth or volatility. Businesses not only stay one step ahead of their competitors, but the power of data analytics also enables them to protect their interests, reduce financial loss, and achieve long-term stability.
Ready to get started? Learn more about earning your bachelor’s degree in Data Analytics at UB!
How Do I Pursue a Career in Data Analytics?
If any of this has piqued your interest, consider a career in data analytics. Earning a degree to pursue a career in data analytics is exceptionally worthwhile, given its lucrative compensation, job security, and the many job opportunities available.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual salary for data scientists is $100,910, with the top ten percent earning more than $167,040. The employment growth rate is projected to grow thirty-six percent by 2031, resulting in an average of about 13,500 openings each year.
Candidates will often pursue a Master’s in Data Analytics or a Master’s in Data Analytics online after earning their Bachelor’s in Data Analytics to achieve the highest salary and apply for advanced leadership roles.
These advanced degrees, which can often be completed in as little as one year, offer in-depth knowledge of information systems and modern analytics skills through rigorous classroom instruction, required projects, and a thesis or internship to demonstrate students’ research, analysis, and project work skills.
Upon successful completion of our Master’s in Data Analytics or our Master’s in Data Analytics online, University of Bridgeport graduates go on to exciting careers as:
- Business intelligence project and program manager
- Dashboard developer
- Financial analyst
- Project leader
- Marketing analytics manager
Data analytics’ power over businesses will continue to increase in our technology and data-driven world. Be a part of this exciting industry movement by earning an advanced Data Analytics Degree.
Contact us today for more information. We’re ready when you are!