Advanced Analytics vs. Business Analytics
Data analytics is a crucial part of organizations today that enables businesses to make informed decisions. It creates opportunities for organizations to better understand their customers, organizations, services or products. Essentially, it helps businesses to stay competitive in the market.
Two subcategories of data analytics include Advanced Analytics and Business Analytics. Both have different purposes in the world of data analytics.
Business Analytics
Business Analytics, commonly known as BA, focuses on the use of data to drive business value. It relies on traditional statistical analytics methods to extract insights from structured data. Business Analytics filters data into segments and summarizes it to provide businesses with reports and dashboards, which in turn leads to better decision making.
The core characteristics of Business Analytics are data collection, data modeling, data transformation, data visualization, and information sharing.
BA uses descriptive analytics which tells what happened, diagnostic which tells why it happened, and predictive analytics which tells what is likely to happen in the future. For example, the analysis of sales trends in the past week or month to identify which products are selling well could help businesses to make inventory decisions.
Advanced Analytics
Advanced Analytics is the use of sophisticated methods to extract insights from the data. It includes statistics, data mining, predictive analytics, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and many more to analyze a vast amount of data.
Advanced Analytics focuses on examining complex data sets to develop models and forecast outcomes with a higher degree of accuracy. It aims to provide businesses with actionable insights that can be used to improve business operations, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Advanced Analytics uses model-building algorithms to highlight patterns in data and create predictive insights. It helps businesses to develop personalized marketing campaigns and tailored customer experiences.
Comparison
To help visualize the differences between the two fields of analytics, the table below highlights some of the significant differences between Advanced Analytics and Business Analytics.
| Business Analytics | Advanced Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Descriptive and diagnostic analytics | Predictive and prescriptive analytics |
| Data Types | Structured data | Structured and unstructured data |
| Tools | Statistic techniques | Machine learning algorithms |
| Skill Set | Data visualization and reporting tools | Statistical and coding skills |
| Business Benefit | Improved operational efficiency | Improved decision making and customer satisfaction |
| Time Frame | Short term | Long-term |
Overall, Business Analytics is still an essential aspect of traditional methods of data analytics, whereas Advanced Analytics is a more complex and innovative approach that has a higher potential for unlocking advanced insights.
Both fields of analytics provide valuable business insights that can significantly impact the organization's performance; however, choosing the correct approach can affect the value of the insights generated.
References
- Bertsimas, D., & Freund, R. M. (Eds.). (2020). Data, models, and decisions: The fundamentals of management science. Dynamic Ideas LLC.
- Chen, H., Chiang, R. H., & Storey, V. C. (2012). Business intelligence and analytics: From big data to big impact. MIS quarterly, 36(4), 1165-1188.
- Davenport, T. H. (2014). Big data at work: Dispelling the myths, uncovering the opportunities. Harvard Business Press.