Analytics: The Cornerstone for a Smarter Commerce Strategy Midsize companies can put the customer in the driving seat by using business analytics to mine the global social conversation for a rich stream of actionable data. 12|5|2012 9 comments
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Analytics I: Becoming a Winner in the Marketplace Rich Luciano describes the advantage small, nimble companies have in using business analytics to seize a competitive advantage. 12|5|2012 1 comment
Analytics II: Pulling Nuggets From the Data Rich Luciano shows how drilling down into the data uncovers the nuggets which lead to better, sounder decision-making. 12|5|2012 Post a comment
Midsized businesses need to realize one thing: Putting the customer in the driver's seat can actually provide a market advantage over their larger competitors. It's good for the customer, too.
The global conversation taking place on social media platforms, together with the ready access to those platforms afforded by the explosion in use of mobile devices, has transformed the relationship between business and consumer. In the first place, consumers are empowered by the extraordinary amount of product information available. Furthermore, in sharing and responding to this information, consumers are creating data packed with insights.
When companies use business analytics tools to extract nuggets of usable information from this consumer data, it's the consumer who ultimately benefits through an improved commercial experience. Here are two great examples:
Blue Mountain Resorts is a year-round ski resort in northern Ontario. The use of business analytics has enabled the resort to integrate and place the mass of data it already held on weather conditions, customer booking habits, and employee schedules and put it directly into the hands of the managers making operating decisions. The resulting data analysis made possible a flexible redeployment of workers across the resort's multiple operations, which in turn led to a $2.5 million reduction in annual labor costs. The benefit to the consumer came with competitive pricing, as sales agents were better able to make real-time pricing decisions.
In this example and others, we see consumer behavior and feedback, along with other factors, being sifted for information, which in turn is used to guide operational decisions. The good news for midsized businesses is that leveraging business analytics does not necessarily mean placing increased burdens on already over-stretched IT departments. A good business analytics solution should place data directly in the hands of decision-makers.
One way this can be achieved is by integrating data from multiple sources and channeling clear, reliable information to accessible dashboards or reports. Arming employees with the information they need rewards businesses with increased revenues and reduced operating costs. Perhaps more importantly, it benefits customer by offering them the products their input has helped define, delivered in the way they prefer, and with after-sales service to which they best respond.
A midsized business that can get a grip on its data can steal a march on larger enterprises through its ability to make rapid adjustments in marketing and operations, in response to consumer demand. It's also an environment absolutely made for close collaboration between CMOs and CIOs.
But getting a grip on the data is key. I believe business analytics is no longer something nice to have. It's the cornerstone of a strategy that will not only increase the competitiveness of the midsized company, but improve the commerce experience for customers as well.
I agree ...It shows respect towards the consumers by the businesses and this useful interaction must be considered as the basic ethos of doing business.
Michael: If you allow the customer to feel that he has been made special and the thoughts are very much appriciated, then the scenario will be totally different. Its just a trick which might help in a major way.
Michael, I think it means that customers can help drive the direction of businesses through their online conversations and consumer behavior without even knowing it. Of course, there are examples where it's conscious, as in the targeted online protests against Bank of America's fee proposals, for example; but much of the time, the customer (you and me) doesn't even realize the analytics trail that's being left.
Yes, and then you must be able to act on the information you learn from those analytics. One exciting aspect of today's analytics and big-data tools is that they are accessible to smaller companies and to the actual business users. Once business users have their eyes opened to these tools, it's incredible how they can use data they already have to find fascinating, actionable trends that they can use to improve business or profits or productivity quickly. Sharing examples of real customers is a great way to underscore analytics' effectiveness.
Analytics is an important in any business. You need a good analysis to produce valuable output of data. That is where the importance of analytics is recognized
ABsolutely. It is clear that data is a precious commodity and used well companies can really manage expenditure & sales cycles to lead to higher revenues. In the past the issue has been the cost of implementing these solutions for SMB's but now the cost benefit analysis clearly shows ROI and with the commidization of BI, portal ESB etc thanks in part to opensource technologies this is no longer the issue. Today it seem the bigger issue is skill labor to implement these solutions effectively.
As a Canadian living in Ontario, I love the Blue Mountain story.
The Canadian company I work for also recognizes the importance of organized data and communications throughout the organization. My analytics skills are of great interest to my co-workers.
In my experience however, analytics doesn't appear to be a job just anyone can do. It requires creativity, strategic thinking, and equal parts I.T. and Marketing skills as well as strong math.
Still, a strong interest in business and analytics can cover a lot of the gaps if the people are driven enough to teach themselves. There's a huge free library on techniques and information all across the Internet, and especially on sites like Internet Evolution. ;)
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