While advanced analytics have facilitated business improvements in many organizations, there are some revenue models that would not have even been possible before analytics capabilities were developed.
There are many business analytics examples in manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and banking organizations, but advanced analytics are not confined to these sectors, and are actually touching every aspect of our lives now.
Let’s look at some of the business cases where the role of business analytics may not be apparent but analytics have created a huge impact.
1. Telecom
With the help of business analytics, telecom service providers can reduce the volume of support calls, as well as the time required to analyze a request. This leads to happier customers and substantial savings for the company.
Telecom service providers offer connectivity solutions, such as broadband Internet, landline voice, and cable TV to millions of customers. Customer service requests are received through various channels, including online chat, phone calls to the contact center, and messaging.
The company can start by analyzing structured data, such as the average duration of service calls, locations from where they are originating, whether customers have to call more than once, and so on. Next, they can use natural language processing to analyze the nature of requests. Each request can be seen, along with data about the consumer, such as location, type of service purchased, etc. This enables the telecom company to be better prepared to resolve service requests, see patterns and correlations in issues that customers are facing, and take proactive action for the future by building predictive models based on historical trends.
These insights help the company predict which customers are most likely to change operators and implement measures to prevent this. This reduces customer churn — a major concern in the telecom industry.
The real benefits of such business analytics systems are an increase in customer satisfaction, customer retention, reduction in calls to the contact center, and lower support costs.
2. Airports
With effective business analytics systems in place, busy international airports can deliver a better experience to travelers by deploying staff based on the expected passenger load. As millions of people pass through the airport every single day, management aims for passengers to reach their destinations on time, with their bags in hand, and in a happy frame of mind. These are challenging objectives, further complicated by uncertain weather, canceled flights, and other factors beyond the control of airport management.
The effective use of business analytics systems can aggregate data from the flight schedules of multiple airlines, weather conditions, cargo tracking systems, and more. At some airports, Wi-Fi sensors capture signals from the cell phones of passengers as they move around. Airport staff can then be deployed and prepared for the passenger load at any given point of time.
The airport can also monitor a variety of parameters, such as time for check-in, baggage retrieval, etc., and analyze the factors that influence these. With such insights, the airport can put the necessary measures in place that will optimize all functions, reducing waiting time for passengers in queues and fatigue among staff.
Airports around the world that have these sophisticated business analytics systems in place are also using real-time updates to communicate with passengers, which helps reduce the stress of travel.
3. Sports teams
Popular sports teams are valued at billions of dollars. While the team’s performance is the primary focus, the owners and managers are also conscious of the need to communicate and engage with their millions of passionate fans. They do this through media properties, such as the teams’ websites, mobile apps, and social media handles.The goal is to produce engaging content that will retain fans and grow the fan base. Some sports teams are now applying business analytics for this purpose.
Sports teams have years and sometimes decades of data about players, matches and teams — down to every shot or kick or throw. This data can be used to create social media content, games and interactive displays at match venues. Fans appreciate that analytics provide them with a deeper understanding of their favorite players’ and teams’ performance.
Thanks to digital displays and touch screens, analytics are now part of the matchday experience as well, and fans can use them to access real-time statistics. Gaming adds an additional channel for the team to engage with fans. In this way, the mathematical and technological prowess of business analytics cements the emotional bond with fans.
While we’ve discussed 3 business analytics examples above, there are many other areas of human life where analytics has the potential to bring about transformation. The technological capabilities are already available. What’s needed is for leadership to have a vision of what’s possible with business analytics.