Turning data into pound isn’t just something for big corporations now. Thanks to relatively inexpensive software and easy-to-use, drag-and-drop tools, pulling data and analysing it – with the goal of growing your business – has never been more uncomplicated.
In other words, even if numbers make your head spin, you can still understand data and make business analytics work for you.
現在，將數據轉化為英鎊已經不僅僅是大公司的事情了。得益于相對便宜的軟件和易于使用的拖放工具，以發展業務為目標，提取和分析數據從未如此簡單。
換句話說，即使數字讓你暈頭轉向，你仍然可以理解數據，讓商業分析為你所用。

What is business analytics? 什么是商業分析？

Business analytics is the process of looking at and assessing the wealth of data your company already has at its disposal and using it to make data-driven decisions. It moves beyond just looking at numbers to see what happened. Instead, business analytics also endeavours to give insight into why things happened and suggests what steps to take next.
商業分析是查看和評估公司已經掌握的大量數據，并使用這些數據做出數據驅動的決策的過程。它不僅僅是通過數字來了解發生了什么。相反，商業分析還致力于洞察事情發生的原因，并建議下一步采取什么步驟。

What are the benefits of using business analytics? 使用商業分析有什么好處？

In just a few years, the implementation of data analytics has skyrocketed. Big data adoption jumped from 17% in 2015 to 59% in 2018, a whopping 42% increase. Nevertheless, a recent survey also found that many businesses are not tapping into the data that they already have at their disposal. Between 60% and 73% of all data within an enterprise goes unused for analytics. It’s a startling number when you think about the potential benefits to small businesses.
Here are just a few:
在短短幾年內，數據分析的實施已經直線上升。大數據采用率從2015年的17%躍升至2018年的59%，增幅高達42%。然而，最近的一項調查也發現，許多企業并沒有利用他們已經掌握的數據。企業中60%到73%的數據都未用于分析。當你想到對小企業的潛在好處時，這是一個驚人的數字。
這里僅舉幾個例子：

Keeping you on budget. If you’re like most small companies, your marketing budget is tight. Using business analytics helps you maximise every pound by helping you get to know your customers better, anticipate their ever-changing needs, get an edge of the competition and bring innovative ideas and products to the marketplace.
Better decision making. Not sure how to use your marketing budget? Or which keywords are most effective? What about predicting your biggest sellers over the holiday season? Business analytics uses data to inform decisions and improve accuracy, efficiency and response time.
The ability to measure accomplishments against overall goals. Business analytics gives you a clearer image of goals and objectives. By using data visualisation, businesses can track their current and past performance against key performance indicators (KPIs), goals and objectives.
Staying in the know. Business owners and marketers can use analytics to track trends, customer behaviour and market shifts. This data will allow you to keep on top of things and make changes dynamically when and if supporting data indicates it’s time.
Building efficiency. Nowadays, the speed at which businesses can garner data is lightning fast. Thanks to business analytics, you can identify any breakdown in progress or performance in almost real-time, saving time, money and resources.
幫你控制預算。如果你像大多數小公司一樣，你的營銷預算是緊張的。使用商業分析可以幫助您更好地了解客戶，預測他們不斷變化的需求，在競爭中獲得優勢，并為市場帶來創新的理念和產品，從而最大限度地提高每一分錢。
更好的決策。不知道如何使用您的營銷預算？或者說哪些關鍵詞最有效？如何預測你在節日期間的最大銷售額？業務分析使用數據為決策提供依據，并提高準確性、效率和響應時間。
根據總體目標衡量成績的能力。商業分析給你一個更清晰的目標和目的的形象。通過使用數據可視化，企業可以根據關鍵績效指標（KPI）、目標和目的跟蹤當前和過去的績效。
保持知情。企業主和營銷人員可以使用分析來跟蹤趨勢、客戶行為和市場變化。這些數據將允許您掌握全局，并在支持數據表明時機成熟時動態地進行更改。
建筑物的效率。如今，企業獲取數據的速度快如閃電。得益于業務分析，您可以幾乎實時地識別進度或性能中的任何故障，從而節省時間、金錢和資源。

What are the different types of business analytics? 商業分析有哪些不同的類型？

Think of business analytics as happening in three different stages:
Descriptive analytics. Digs into your data and uses KPIs to show you the current state of your business. For example, real-time information about your customers’ demographics, interests or purchasing behaviour. Maybe it’s sales numbers or financials. It could be social metrics like how many Facebook likes, Tweets or followers you have. Descriptive analytics doesn’t try to establish cause and effect relationships. It’s essentially cold, hard numbers.
Predictive analytics. This type of analytics goes one step further. It tries to predict future actions based on trending historical data. Here are a few examples: Use past information to work out what types of products your customers might be interested in based on recent numbers, and whether they are likely to purchase again.
If you have a limited budget for your marketing campaign and can’t afford to offer discounts to everyone, based on description analytics, predictive analytics could inform you about the customers who are most likely to buy your product.
Prescriptive analytics. This form of business analytics can show you the best course of action for a given situation. While descriptive analytics shows what has already happened, and predictive analytics tries to forecast what might happen next, prescriptive uses that information to give you potential solutions based on similar situations (Year-on-Year data, seasonality data, product launch data). For example, ticket sales for a Christmas show are lagging compared to last year’s sales. Prescriptive analytics may suggest a need to lower prices or add a matinee performance in response.
認為商業分析發生在三個不同的階段：
描述性分析。深入挖掘您的數據，并使用KPI向您展示業務的當前狀態。例如，有關客戶人口統計、興趣或購買行為的實時信息。也許是銷售數據或財務數據。可以是社交指標，比如你在Facebook上有多少“贊”、“推”或“追隨者”。描述性分析并不試圖建立因果關系。本質上都是冷冰冰的硬數字。
預測分析。這種類型的分析更進了一步。它試圖根據趨勢歷史數據預測未來的行動。下面是幾個例子：利用過去的信息，根據最近的數字，找出你的客戶可能會對什么類型的產品感興趣，以及他們是否有可能再次購買。
如果你的營銷活動預算有限，不能給每個人都提供折扣，基于描述分析，預測分析可以告訴你最有可能購買你產品的客戶。
規范性分析。這種形式的業務分析可以向您展示針對特定情況的最佳行動方案。描述性分析顯示已經發生的情況，預測性分析試圖預測接下來可能發生的情況，而說明性分析則使用這些信息，根據類似的情況（同比數據、季節性數據、產品發布數據）為您提供潛在的解決方案。例如，與去年相比，一場圣誕演出的門票銷售滯后。規范性分析可能會建議降低票價或增加日場演出作為回應。

User-friendly analytics resources for small business 面向小型企業的用戶友好型分析資源

Google Analytics. Google is king when it comes to analysing your online world, whether it’s your website or social presence. Still, a recent study found that less than 30% of small businesses use website analytics, call tracking or voucher codes. About 18% of small businesses admit to not tracking anything at all. That’s where Google Analytics can come in to play. You can sync your Google accounts (including AdSense) to get insight into ROI on marketing, ad campaigns and more. Best of all, you can try the basic version out for free, which may be powerful enough for your small business. If you need more in-depth analytics down the line, you can upgrade later.
Easy-to-use software. With today’s intuitive tools, business analytics has never been more natural. Nowadays, there’s plenty of reasonably-priced apps – like Power BI – that lets you easily transform data into visuals, and then analyse and share them with colleagues on any device, giving you unmatched insights. In addition, software like Visio lets you bring ideas life with easy-to-read diagrams created from various sources, including your existing Excel data.
Built-in email and spreadsheet tools. Chances are, you have some basic data-gathering capabilities already at your fingertips. Many spreadsheets have easy-to-read charts and graphs on board that’ll help you better understand (and present) your data, via formatting, sparklines and tables, plus capabilities for creating forecasts with just a few clicks. The same goes for email. Find one with a lightweight Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) tool built-in, and you’ll be able to easily manage customer data, including emails, meetings, calls, notes, tasks, deals and deadlines in one place. CRM data can hold a treasure-trove of invaluable information about your company’s customers, and sales and marketing operations.
谷歌分析。谷歌是國王，當談到分析你的網絡世界，無論是你的網站或社會存在。盡管如此，最近的一項研究發現，只有不到30%的小企業使用網站分析，呼叫跟蹤或優惠券代碼。大約18%的小企業承認根本沒有跟蹤任何東西。這就是Google Analytics可以發揮作用的地方。您可以同步您的Google帳戶（包括AdSense），以深入了解營銷、廣告活動等方面的投資回報率。最棒的是，您可以免費試用基本版本，這對于您的小企業來說可能是足夠強大的。如果你需要更深入的分析，你可以稍后升級。
易于使用的軟件。借助今天的直觀工具，業務分析從來沒有像現在這樣自然。如今，有很多價格合理的應用–比如超級功率BI–可以讓你輕松地將數據轉換成視覺，然后在任何設備上與同事進行分析和分享，讓你獲得無與倫比的洞察力。此外，像Visio這樣的軟件可以讓您使用從各種來源創建的易于閱讀的圖表(包括現有Excel數據)來實現思想生活。
內置電子郵件和電子表格工具。很有可能，你已經有了一些基本的數據收集能力。許多電子表格有易于閱讀的圖表和圖表，這將幫助您更好地理解(并展示)您的數據，通過格式化，火花線和表格，加上功能，創建預測，只需幾下點擊。電子郵件也是如此。找到一個與輕量級客戶關系管理(CRM)工具內置，你將能夠輕松地管理客戶數據，包括電子郵件，會議，電話，筆記，任務，交易和最后期限在一個地方。CRM數據可以保存有關貴公司的客戶，銷售和營銷業務的寶貴信息寶庫。

Every type of business can benefit from using business analytics. No matter which tools you choose in the end, gaining better insight into your data will help you stay on budget, on task and in-the-know.??
每種類型的企業都可以從使用業務分析中受益。無論您最終選擇哪種工具，更好地洞察您的數據都將幫助您控制預算、完成任務并掌握相關信息。