Data is a rich and abundant resource in today’s digital world. According to Accenture, the world produces five exabytes (the equivalent of five billion gigabytes) of data daily. By 2025, this is set to rise to a rate of 463 exabytes per day. As data continues to multiply with no end in sight, there is an even greater need to leverage all data sources – internal and external, structured and unstructured – to more clearly understand your business today and in the future.
Never before has so much data about so many different things been collected and stored every second of every day. In this world of big data, data literacy – the ability to analyze, interpret, and even question data – is an increasingly valuable skill.
Jan Hammond
Professor
Harvard Business School
But how do you turn your data into gold-mine-worthy insights so you can truly benefit from it? This is where data analytics comes into play.
Data analytics uses specific technologies and business processes to gather, organize and analyze a company’s existing data to provide greater insights into its operations for faster, more informed decision-making. It's more advanced than traditional reporting in how it analyzes data and delivers multiple levels of analysis via highly graphical, interactive dashboards. Data analytics solutions are also automated and use real-time information, eliminating the reliance on manual reports that are time-consuming to create and likely contain outdated information.
Why Tap the Gold Mine?
Information is like currency. The ability to have actionable business insights at your fingertips is an invaluable asset that directly influences the success of your business. A report by business intelligence company MicroStrategy cited the riches awarded to those who use data analytics, including:
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64%
increased efficiency and productivity
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51%
improved financial performance
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44%
enhanced customer experience
How can you strike it rich and experience these benefits at your company? Read our Unearth the Power of Data Analytics eBook for steps on how to make data analytics work at your agency and tech recommendations to become more data-driven.
