Digital is all about data, contrary to the prevalent method of creating Analytics as a silo all by itself. Analytics should be seen as one of the fundamental underlying processes that support the core business processes like product development, marketing, sales, customer relationship, finance and innovation. Data and Analytics provide value to core processes, for continuous improvement.
Most organisations are keen on innovation. Innovation could entail new market opportunities and could be an entirely new value proposition, discovered on a strategy canvas. But innovation could also be a by-product of a business process improvement. Such opportunities can only arise when business processes are tracked, measured and analyzed. Organisations that indulge in hypothesis driven product development or mass marketing could benefit by introducing a data driven approach to the above processes, thereby uncovering the customer needs and product usage. Businesses may launch products with a certain outcome in mind, but sales, social media feedback and web analytics data may have another story to tell. It is in this story, that new opportunities can be unearthed. Understanding customer behavior is a way of discovering new marketing and/or product/service development opportunities.
Many organisations investing heavily in digitization, charting customer journeys, aimed at improving customer experience across all touch points, seemingly forget to make Analytics an integral part of this process. The key to understanding major business drivers like customer retention, ROMI, growth, customer engagement, monetization, finding new customer segments depend on deciphering the business data generated.
Analytics, therefore should be embedded in all business processes to capture the way the end customers perceive products or services or marketing and branding efforts made by any organisation. Analyzing the business data from existing processes could possibly give rise to future business prospects. To tread on a path of continuous improvement and innovation, companies will have to make Analytics a fundamental part of every business strategy.
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