Thanks to the web, businesses now have access to vast amounts of data, with the option of data science at their disposal, too. Data science isn’t just about collating data for a business. It’s the ability to extract the most useful information and perform an incredible array of analytics. For any business, this means superior insights and deeper knowledge.

Of course, knowledge is power, and many businesses are now turning to data science to inform their business strategy. Here’s why. 

How useful is data science?

Data science is able to make meaning from customer data. The term customer data doesn’t just refer to personal details exchanged during purchases. It’s any information provided during an interaction with your business. 

This also includes, for example:

• Web behavior (how consumers engage with your website, their journeys within the site and where they spend their time, and how they leave)
• Consumer surveys
• Audio and video files
• Social media interactions (likes, shares and mentions, etc.) 

These vast data sets are commonly referred to as “big data.” 

Data scientists are able to extract meaning from big data. They apply statistical modeling, AI and machine learning to provide custom analysis. They can reveal historical trends and patterns and produce predictive models. Data scientists bridge the gap between the worlds of science and business. 

How could my business be using data science?

There are many practical applications for data science in business. These include the ability to: 

• Better understand your customers

Every day, your business collects vast amounts of data from customers. Social media engagement, survey responses and website traffic data all have a huge potential to help you better understand who is engaging with your business and products or services. Knowing this can help you make improvements to better suit the needs of your customers, as well as help to hone your branding strategy. 

You can gain great insights into the age and income brackets of your customers, for example, and their likes and dislikes, or the social media platforms they tend to engage with most. All this information is at your fingertips. And with the help of data scientists, you can use it to better promote your business by targeting your product to the right audience on the right platforms. 

• Leverage data for clearer decision making

When difficult decisions present themselves and various pathways lie ahead, it would be helpful for business leaders to be able to access information to enable the most educated choice. Predictive analytic tools allow data scientists to leverage company data and prepare various predictive models. Best and worst case scenarios can be identified using statistical modeling, allowing you to test-drive the various options open to you. This means that leaders can make the most informed decisions. 

• Guide product or service improvement

Through data analysis, your company can take a detailed look at your target market’s response to your product. Scientists can pinpoint who is buying your product, and how and why they are using it. Being able to make this kind of sophisticated analysis allows you to make exactly the right improvements to your product.

You can use data to make comparisons with competitors and analyze the wider market. Having this information can give you a distinct advantage over competitors.

• Better inform staff

The insights provided by big data aren’t just for management and critical decision making. You can use data to inform staff training, and to improve staff knowledge bases and workflow processes for every employee. 

• Recruit the best talent

Businesses can use data to analyze people as well as products. Recruitment can be a laborious process when it is approached in a more traditional way (i.e., advertising a post and then waiting for applicants). With recruitment websites and social media at their disposal, businesses can now quickly pinpoint the right people from an ocean of talent using the right analysis tools. 

How can I bring data science into my business?

Through your social media profiles, customer databases, and your website data at the very least, you already have access to big data. The question is how you can begin to harness the untapped potential of it all. 

Data science requires expertise and is not something that can be done well without very specific training. There is certainly the option of hiring a full-time data scientist from the start. It’s a wide field and thus data scientists will often have their own unique skillset and particular areas of expertise. Finding the right data scientist with the right certification and set of skills can bring enormous value to an organization.

There is also the option of upskilling staff already working within your organization or a new recruit. Customized Data Structures online courses and the best data science training courses are available to your business, which will put the power of data straight into your hands, with immediate benefits. For example, employees can be taught to use big data software and storage systems such as Hadoop, or NOSQL, or use programming languages like Python. There is a range of options to suit your business needs and desired outcomes. 

These big data courses should cover both the theory and practicalities of exploring large data sets to bring the greatest value to your organization. A good course will teach members of your organization to apply the most advantageous tools, hand over expert techniques, and give the skills to manage and utilize large data sets. Employees can also learn how to apply this new knowledge to business strategies for the most data-driven, evidence-based decision making. 

Streamline and save money

Using data science routinely allows your business to best decide where to spend its budget. The use of data science can cut out unnecessary spending on fruitless promotions, overly laborious recruitment campaigns and unrewarding product development. It allows staff to make quicker, more efficient decisions, immediately streamlining your business. 

Having employees who are highly skilled in data science amongst your workforce needs to be seen as ammunition, or even that extra weapon that can give you a huge advantage over competitors and help your business get to the forefront of its field.  

AUTHOR BIO

Tapas Banerjee founded Web Age Solutions, a premier IT training company, serving Fortune 500-sized companies across North America. Under his leadership, Web Age Solutions has won multiple awards such as Inc 500 and Profit 100 as one of the fastest growing companies. He is instrumental in coming up with various training offerings in the growing fields of Data Science and AI, Cloud and Microservices.