Information is all around us. Despite cynics arguing that much of it is simply ‘noise’, the opposite is true. Given the wealth of data at our disposal, companies are realising the importance of getting value from it using a myriad of analytical solutions.
Even though organisations of various sizes and from any industry can draw benefit from its data, it is especially in the financial services sector we are seeing significant gains. Part of this can be attributed to the difficult global economic conditions and unique local circumstances. Of course, finance permeates every aspect of business and using data in more innovative ways will be a fundamental part of ecoming more competitive in the connected landscape.
Changing technologies
Certainly, advances in technology are making it easier to extract meaningful insights from the data decision-makers have at their disposal. However, there still needs to be a willingness to scrutinise back-end data and ensure that the ‘right’ information is used for the development of products and services and the revision of corporate strategy.
Similarly, techniques to analyse data have also improved significantly. Today, you do not have to be a data scientist or business analyst to gain some value from the resident information. Yes, these professions can unlock a significant amount of meaningful insight but organisations that do not have the budget for these resources can still get some competitive advantage by performing in-house analysis.
Democratisation of tools
Just as cloud computing made collaboration, sharing, and storing information a more cost-effective process, so too is data analysis tools making real-time insights something that all companies can perform.
When every expense is being scrutinised and every line item on the business budget examined, data analysis can empower executives by giving them access to information in ways previously unimagined.
An advanced mindset
More advanced analytics can bring about even more business advantages as companies try to gain the competitive edge wherever possible. Being able to generate detailed profiles of customers, identifying purchasing patterns, and even incorporating telemetry data from connected devices provide organisations with a wealth of options when it comes to create more bespoke solutions.
Factor in the potential of predictive analytics and you have an environment that is incredibly conducive to a more personalised customer experience. And it is this unique offering that stakeholders are expecting of more connected – and data-savvy – businesses in 2018.
So, even though some might think that true real-time analytics is a while away, the organisations that are able to extract the most benefit from it in finances will be the ones to remain relevant in the months and years to come.
