The process of predictive analytics has come far in the past decade. No longer is this process the sole responsibility of data scientists or IT staff. Today’s self-serve predictive analytics and forecasting tools are designed to support business users and data analysts alike.

What is Predictive Analytics?

Predictive analytics is the process of forecasting or predicting business results for planning purposes. Predictive analytics employs various analytical and modeling techniques, leveraging historical data and business results to identify crucial relationships, opportunities and risks so that business managers can more accurately predict growth, and competitive and market changes and identify trends and patterns.

A self-serve predictive analytics tool allows the average business user to access sophisticated predictive algorithms without the expertise and skill of a trained data scientist, so users who are not statisticians or predictive algorithm experts, can leverage self-service plug n’ play predictive analytics tools to confidently make business decisions.

Can Predictive Analytics Help You Achieve Business Objectives?

If an organization wishes to be successful in the market and in its competitive efforts, it must accurately forecast and predict the future of its business, plan for new locations and products or services, and optimize internal operations. Predictive analytics can help a business understand the buying behavior of its customers and prospects and plug n’ play predictive and forecasting tools help businesses to create Citizen Data Scientists and establish metrics and goals across the enterprise for uniform execution and understanding of business objectives.

A Gartner report published July 27, 2017 (ID G00326012), entitled, ‘Augmented Analytics Is the Future of Data and Analytics’, predicts that ‘By 2020, the number of users of modern business intelligence and analytics platforms that are differentiated by augmented data discovery capabilities will grow at twice the rate – and deliver twice the business value – of those that are not.’

The benefits of these augmented data discovery and predictive analytic tools is undeniable. Self-Serve, Plug n’ Play Predictive Analysis allows the organization to identify which customers the organization may be at risk of losing, based on purchasing patterns, demographics, geographic and other macro parameters. These predictive tools can identify sets of prospects to be converted to customers, identify price point changes, new product opportunities or new features for existing products, and where to open a new location based on various parameters. Predictive analytics can help the organization to develop promotions, expand marketing channels, and identify high-performance, high-value targets for the business.

While self-serve predictive analytics tools are designed to satisfy the needs of business users, these tools can also be used by skilled data scientists and business analysts for statistical and predictive analytics algorithms, to perform more sophisticated and complex analysis, achieve clarity and provide detailed, meaningful advanced analytics and reporting for the organization.

When an organization employs self-serve predictive analytics tools to forecast and plan business results, it enables users at every level of the organization to participate in, and understand the impact of, activities, tasks and objectives designed to achieve dependable results.

Original Post: What is Predictive Analytics and Can it Help You Achieve Business Objectives?

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