7 things we learned about analytics in 2020.

28 Jan

There’s no doubt about it, 2020 turned the world upside down. Some businesses thrived, all faced unprecedented challenges, and some were able to pivot into new-found territories. Organisations faced remote working en masse and consumer behaviour was all online. And with many of these challenges still present as we head into 2021 what’s next for many enterprises? We’re looking back at what we learned about analytics in 2020 and questioning what this means going forward. Here are our top 7 learnings.

The need for cloud-based business intelligence analytics has never been greater
In an unpredictable landscape, analytics and BI are essential to plan and execute strategies that are fundamental for survival. And with the huge shift to remote working, those businesses and teams that have already transitioned to the cloud know that their tools and processes can be used anywhere. But for those businesses that haven’t transitioned? Well, it’s becoming an integral business priority. According to Forbes, between February and April 2020, there was a 68% increase in enterprises that stated cloud computing is critical to their operations. This is only growing.
Cloud-based BI solutions enable you to eliminate hardware-related costs, deploy your solution fast, scale it up and compute resources, time and cost effectively, access data via any web browser or mobile device, and securely share actionable insights amongst colleagues regardless of the location. If it isn’t already, this should be a priority for all businesses.
Survival in 2021 is data-driven
With organisations facing such unpredictability in 2020 and little to depend on in the way of a constant, model-based artificial intelligence (AI) saw a resurgence. And often, it was brand-new and sometimes small datasets (as the lifespan of data sources shrunk in some cases) that were being used to turn guesswork into strategic and evidence-based decisions. This became an essential skill over the course of 2020 and is set to continue.
Your analytics models and your wider business strategy should work in tandem
This goes without saying. By aligning your business strategy with your analytics models, you ensure that your data provides the required insight for those within your organisation to make the right decisions in a timely way – something that was crucial throughout 2020.
And when integrated properly, data can accelerate your business strategy by improving processes and empowering the people needed to execute them. This is key as we face ongoing unpredictability well into 2021. The right tools and the right strategic approach to data management is fundamental.
It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have a lot of historical data to work from
Sure, you may have gone into 2020 basing your business decisions from your historical data. But how do you respond when the world is then turned on its head? With markets changing and a fluctuating landscape, often we’re now working with much smaller datasets. These require agile methodologies and continually revised assumptions to drive responsible decision making in these unprecedented times.
Those organisations with the flexibility – and the right BI solutions in place – are the ones able to weather the storm, and in some cases thrive.
And the future? Gartner predicts that more than 33% of large organisations will have analytics practicing decision intelligence such as decision modelling by 2023 – this is a framework where traditional techniques are brought together with advanced techniques like AI and machine learning. Can you really afford to become technologically complacent?