As time trickles by, society as we know it is undergoing a paradigm shift – from being manpower intensive, to being technologically intensive. As the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, change is the only constant. We all must learn to embrace change, whether pleasant or not. Surely, old-school traditional methods have their own perks. However adopting new modus operandi comes with their own benefits which can astronomically outweigh the gains from traditional methods.
One such feature is data analytics. Increasingly, companies have thus been employing the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics to help plan and expand their business operations. In this article, I will be briefly discussing 3 benefits of incorporating data analytics into your business operations. They are security, delivering relevant products and the planning of your business.
1. Security
Firstly, security. With the increasing prevalence of technology, businesses are no stranger to hacks, malware and other cybersecurity attacks. Such attacks can be ghastly and have dire consequences for a company. For instance, the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017. The attack affected people worldwide and demanded bitcoins in ransom. It caused tremendous losses amounting to about 4 billion dollars and many files were lost despite paying the ransom.
Data analytics can help to mitigate if not prevent such attacks from affecting your company. Efficient data and analytical capabilities can help to provide sufficient levels of fraud prevention and the enhancement of the overall organisational security. The analysis of past and ongoing attacks also helps to large extents. In addition, the usage of data from fraud prevention propensity models helps you to identify potential threats from an ongoing malware attack. Analytics of previous attacks help you to identify potential gaps and loopholes in your current system, allowing you to tighten the loose ends and strengthen your security measures.
2. Delivering Relevant Products
Secondly, delivering relevant products. Every organisation has a certain product or service that they want to market and sell. Customers tend to have an affinity for a certain product, due to its nature, be it a necessity or a limited edition good. Hence, that product is likely to be a bestseller and it would do your business good if you could stock up on that product, place it appropriately in your store and aggressively market it.
Data analytics could help you with just that. It can help you recognise trends in the market through customer’s opinions as you discover which products currently sell best and which are most likely to sell best in the future. This will allow you to carry out some advanced planning and anticipate what the customers require before them having to request for it.
3. Business Planning
Lastly, we have business planning. Future planning in a business requires past data. Past data allows one to learn from their mistakes and capitalise on what they have been doing well. A recent study shows that data-driven marketing strategies result in a 20% increase in revenue and 30% reduction in costs. This could drive a business’ profit margin up quite significantly.
You could also use analytics to boost your social media and learn more about demographics. Using insights and analytics helps you decipher which pages, which social media or even which specific post is doing well. It also tells you about who is most attracted to your product – how old are they? Their gender? Where do they come from? Such data tell you if you are managing to reach your target audience or not. Hence, it allows you to customize your ads to reach your target audience properly. Therefore, if certain posts are doing well, you can post similar content to captivate your followers.
Conclusion:
All in all, data analytics is a boon. The saying “what isn’t measured can’t be managed” holds truer than ever. Without the proper analytics in place, it would be like wandering around aimlessly. It has thus become a necessity and could bring about immense gains if used in a proper manner. The above is a non-exhaustive list of its benefits – the list goes on and on. With the proper analytics in place, you will be firing on all cylinders and paving your path towards business growth.
EPOS is proud to be the only POS vendor islandwide that is eligible for the Digital Resilience Bonus Category 3 – Data Mining & Analytics. We are strong believers in the efficacy of data analytics. Our report generation feature is powerful and allows you to have access to many different types of reports, arranged by day, week, month – you name it. In conclusion, these can help you plan and streamline your business operations and prepare your company for choppy waters if need be. In other words, if you are in the market for a new POS system, do consider EPOS as we unlock a world of endless benefits for our clients.
Interested to see what EPOS POS system can do for your business? Fill in your contact details and we’ll reach out to you to schedule a demo.
