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.
现在，将数据转化为英镑已经不仅仅是大公司的事情了。得益于相对便宜的软件和易于使用的拖放工具，以发展业务为目标，提取和分析数据从未如此简单。
换句话说，即使数字让你晕头转向，你仍然可以理解数据，让商业分析为你所用。

What is business analytics? 什么是商业分析？

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.
商业分析是查看和评估公司已经掌握的大量数据，并使用这些数据做出数据驱动的决策的过程。它不仅仅是通过数字来了解发生了什么。相反，商业分析还致力于洞察事情发生的原因，并建议下一步采取什么步骤。

What are the benefits of using business analytics? 使用商业分析有什么好处？

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:
在短短几年内，数据分析的实施已经直线上升。大数据采用率从2015年的17%跃升至2018年的59%，增幅高达42%。然而，最近的一项调查也发现，许多企业并没有利用他们已经掌握的数据。企业中60%到73%的数据都未用于分析。当你想到对小企业的潜在好处时，这是一个惊人的数字。
这里仅举几个例子：

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.
帮你控制预算。如果你像大多数小公司一样，你的营销预算是紧张的。使用商业分析可以帮助您更好地了解客户，预测他们不断变化的需求，在竞争中获得优势，并为市场带来创新的理念和产品，从而最大限度地提高每一分钱。
更好的决策。不知道如何使用您的营销预算？或者说哪些关键词最有效？如何预测你在节日期间的最大销售额？业务分析使用数据为决策提供依据，并提高准确性、效率和响应时间。
根据总体目标衡量成绩的能力。商业分析给你一个更清晰的目标和目的的形象。通过使用数据可视化，企业可以根据关键绩效指标（KPI）、目标和目的跟踪当前和过去的绩效。
保持知情。企业主和营销人员可以使用分析来跟踪趋势、客户行为和市场变化。这些数据将允许您掌握全局，并在支持数据表明时机成熟时动态地进行更改。
建筑物的效率。如今，企业获取数据的速度快如闪电。得益于业务分析，您可以几乎实时地识别进度或性能中的任何故障，从而节省时间、金钱和资源。

What are the different types of business analytics? 商业分析有哪些不同的类型？

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.
认为商业分析发生在三个不同的阶段：
描述性分析。深入挖掘您的数据，并使用KPI向您展示业务的当前状态。例如，有关客户人口统计、兴趣或购买行为的实时信息。也许是销售数据或财务数据。可以是社交指标，比如你在Facebook上有多少“赞”、“推”或“追随者”。描述性分析并不试图建立因果关系。本质上都是冷冰冰的硬数字。
预测分析。这种类型的分析更进了一步。它试图根据趋势历史数据预测未来的行动。下面是几个例子：利用过去的信息，根据最近的数字，找出你的客户可能会对什么类型的产品感兴趣，以及他们是否有可能再次购买。
如果你的营销活动预算有限，不能给每个人都提供折扣，基于描述分析，预测分析可以告诉你最有可能购买你产品的客户。
规范性分析。这种形式的业务分析可以向您展示针对特定情况的最佳行动方案。描述性分析显示已经发生的情况，预测性分析试图预测接下来可能发生的情况，而说明性分析则使用这些信息，根据类似的情况（同比数据、季节性数据、产品发布数据）为您提供潜在的解决方案。例如，与去年相比，一场圣诞演出的门票销售滞后。规范性分析可能会建议降低票价或增加日场演出作为回应。

User-friendly analytics resources for small business 面向小型企业的用户友好型分析资源

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。谷歌是国王，当谈到分析你的网络世界，无论是你的网站或社会存在。尽管如此，最近的一项研究发现，只有不到30%的小企业使用网站分析，呼叫跟踪或优惠券代码。大约18%的小企业承认根本没有跟踪任何东西。这就是Google Analytics可以发挥作用的地方。您可以同步您的Google帐户（包括AdSense），以深入了解营销、广告活动等方面的投资回报率。最棒的是，您可以免费试用基本版本，这对于您的小企业来说可能是足够强大的。如果你需要更深入的分析，你可以稍后升级。
易于使用的软件。借助今天的直观工具，业务分析从来没有像现在这样自然。如今，有很多价格合理的应用–比如超级功率BI–可以让你轻松地将数据转换成视觉，然后在任何设备上与同事进行分析和分享，让你获得无与伦比的洞察力。此外，像Visio这样的软件可以让您使用从各种来源创建的易于阅读的图表(包括现有Excel数据)来实现思想生活。
内置电子邮件和电子表格工具。很有可能，你已经有了一些基本的数据收集能力。许多电子表格有易于阅读的图表和图表，这将帮助您更好地理解(并展示)您的数据，通过格式化，火花线和表格，加上功能，创建预测，只需几下点击。电子邮件也是如此。找到一个与轻量级客户关系管理(CRM)工具内置，你将能够轻松地管理客户数据，包括电子邮件，会议，电话，笔记，任务，交易和最后期限在一个地方。CRM数据可以保存有关贵公司的客户，销售和营销业务的宝贵信息宝库。

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.  
每种类型的企业都可以从使用业务分析中受益。无论您最终选择哪种工具，更好地洞察您的数据都将帮助您控制预算、完成任务并掌握相关信息。