4 Types of Data Analytics Services to Improve Decision-Making for Your Business

The one who genuinely believes that “data is an asset” will survive and surpass the ongoing and coming market hurdles. Be it advertising, education, banking or corporation, data analytics services have become the backbone of the decision-making process. Front-runners like Google and Facebook are leading the pack and constantly inspiring industries to become a part of this tech-revolution. Somehow, they have succeeded as companies regardless of their size consider data analytics services into their plan.

Data does not work on the concept of ‘one size fits all’. There are 4 major types of data analytics systems to choose from and all of them are important for decision-making for any organisation today.

Descriptive Analytics  

This category of data analytics describes the question “What Happened?”. Descriptive analytics categorises and reads raw data from multiple data sources to manufacture valuable insights into the past decision. However, the biggest drawback of this type is that it simply detects that something is wrong or right but doesn’t provide an explanation of the ‘why’ of it.  It is the simplest technique and therefore data consultants usually combine it with other types of data analytics for better results.

Diagnostic Analytics

This technique of data analytics compares historical data with other data to find the answer of the question of why something happened. It gives in-depth insights about a problem helping data consultants to unveil the latent solutions. However, it is important for companies to provide detailed information to be mulled over by the algorithms, otherwise it would become time-consuming.

Predictive Analytics

As the name suggests, predictive analytics predicts about what is likely to happen. This prepares the company to prepare and find solutions in the remaining time. It requires the results of descriptive and diagnostic analytics to perceive loopholes and exceptions while predicting future trends and forecasts for making an error-free decision.

Prescriptive Analytics

Prescriptive analytics is the advanced version of predictive analytics. The main purpose of this type of technique is to literally prescribe what action should be taken in order to safeguard from a future problem or reap full advantage of a promising trend.

In a survey “2016 Global Data and Analytics Survey: Big Decision,” more than 2,000 business executives were asked to choose a technology-category that befits their company’s decision-making process best.  Furthermore, C-suite was questioned about their most preferred type of analytics. The results were as following: domination of descriptive analytics by 58% in the “Rarely data-driven decision-making” category; diagnostic analytics was the most preferred by 34% in the “Somewhat data-driven” category; predictive analytics led in the “Highly data-driven” category by 36%.  Each data analytics type adds various values to the business, but they all have their own importance. Therefore, understanding the business requirement and further choosing the right type will be the step in the right direction.