With technology changing at an unprecedented pace, advertising and media agencies are in a flux. They will need to rapidly upgrade themselves while not compromising on their traditional creative strengths. A balance needs to found out between the modern cutting-edge business analytics and creative storytelling. It is crating pressure on agencies as clients require instant results but also want personalized marketing. There exist three main ways in which marketing agencies can maintain the right balance. First of all, they must extract business intelligence through cloud-based suites such as the One World platform by Net Suite. This intelligence extracted must further be utilized to instill a sense of creative thinking. Above all, the agencies must maintain flexibility to be ready to change when needed.

Source:https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/marketing-analytics/how-agencies-can-balance-creative-storytelling-and-digital-analytics-for-brands/

Uploaded Date:31st October 2018

People analytics is a subset of business analytics that collects data on employees and uses its derived statistical insights to make talent management decisions. Not long back, this was a novelty but now it is pervasive. There have even been famous case studies such as Dell’s to improve the success of its sales force and Google Project Oxygen. But beyond the hype, the impact has not been as pointed as was expected. A study by TCS for example reveals that a mere 5% of investments in such data-intensive fields is channeled towards HR. Deloitte meanwhile states that just 9% of companies have proper understanding of people analytics. This people analytics comprises of two main attributes, starting with traits that cannot be changed such as ethnicity and gender. The other is the state which includes aspects that will change such as age, attendance records and education levels. Instead of merely people analytics, companies would be well-advised to explore relational analytics. There exist six signatures of relational analytics. These are- ideation, influence, innovation, efficiency, silos and vulnerability.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/11/better-people-analytics

Uploaded Date:31st October 2018

The use of predictive analytics has been on for some time now. However, now business analytics is moving towards a more prescriptive model by using more of machine learning and advanced software. The traditional model focused on churning massive quantities of data and gleaning the requisite business intelligence from it. But it was soon realized that from these massive chunks of data, people were not always able to differentiate the right bits using the tools. So, prescriptive analytics merges human intelligence with data-backed analytics. It is a natural progression. Access to data may prove to still be a big challenge to this model. Companies must not only seek answers, but also explore the kind of questions that may emerge. The final decision would still rest with human decision-making intelligence.

Source:https://www.techradar.com/news/the-path-from-predictive-to-prescriptive-analytics

Uploaded Date:27 October 2018

Whether it is a drop-off of repeat customers or shifts in consumption patterns or even attempts at breaking into a new geographical market, big data and its application through advanced business analytics has been seen as the panacea. The business world today understands the formula of ‘more the better’ when it comes to data. However, once probed deep, data cannot explain the motivations behind individual behaviours. That is why team leaders must help their colleagues understand what data can do and what it cannot achieve. One has to understand its true strengths and weaknesses. One thing it can best do, is reveal the “what” of any problem. But it rarely determines the “why”. To understand this “why”, a qualitative approach is necessary. One also needs to factors in the temporal issues such as those influencing behaviours. And finally, one needs rigorous testing before identifying a solution.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/10/help-your-team-understand-what-data-is-and-isnt-good-for

Uploaded Date:16 October 2018

Human Resources (HR) has been getting a lot of things wrong, but now on the path towards correction thanks to the right use of big data analysis. A lot like Bill James, the legendary statistician made use of data in baseball, similarly people analytics is playing a role in HR. One way in which the impact already appears is sources of talent recruitment. Analytics is enabling specific pointers towards demographics, professional history, performance, tenure and branch information for the recruitment team to know where exactly to look for the talent pool. There are a lot of inherent biases prevalent among humans, which reflect during the recruitment phase. There is also a lot of noise as for each post available, a lot of people apply, even without the relevant qualifications. Screening resumes can be an arduous task, best left to automated analytics tools now. The people management is also improving thanks to the judicious use of people analytics. This is addressing the long-held attrition issues. HR teams are now able to pinpointedly understand the issues to work on, to improve employee retention.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/people-analytics-reveals-three-things-hr-may-be-getting-wrong

Uploaded Date:27 September 2018

While the insurance industry is there to protect users from mishaps, the industry itself has little security. This is because of the short shelf-life of policies, letting users continuously hop brands. The industry has earned the title of being one of the least sticky. This is where business analytics is coming to the rescue. Its predictive capabilities are allowing customized offering to be put up for different kinds of customers. A dashboard is now available from where each customer’s profile can be checked against for the best possible policies. It is also helping in fraud prevention by doing a customer analysis from his/her social media feed, gauging the likelihood of the person committing such a fraud. A lot of insurance companies lose out on business due to under-pitching just to win customers. But data analysis algorithms detect key business intelligence to analyze the profitability of the offered policies and improve agent productivity. A cloud-based data-driven broken management system is needed to be developed which aggregates and visually presents information gleaned on real-time basis.

Source:https://www.analyticsinsight.net/how-analytics-insures-the-insurance-industry/

Uploaded Date:27 September 2018

A lot of B2B players are struggling to come up with the right pricing mechanism to woo clients. That is where the right usage of business analytics can be a winning combination. It will help in multi-pronged ways starting with understanding the behaviour of sales associates and customers before segmenting them. Beyond plotting customers, even the sales team can be graphed. Corporate training programmes may then be developed according to the salesperson personas. The B2B distribution centre will have its own unique culture, separate from the sales. The core sales personnel will on the other hand constantly seek to maximize the topline. Due to the specific data points collected, analytics also helps in narrating why collaboration usually wins. Sales teams will need to be in touch with product teams to get the best final pricing.

Source:https://www.mdm.com/blogs/19-distributor-analytics/post/39059-why-analytics-are-the-cornerstone-to-pricing-improvement

Uploaded Date:11 September 2018