Business Analytics is the use of tools and techniques, such as data mining, pattern matching, data visualization and predictive modelling, for the continuous methodological exploration of past business data to develop new insights about the business performance and facilitate business planning. The primary goal of any analytics exercise in a company is to inform the management about the health of the business, at times forewarn of impending problems/opportunities and throw light on what to best expect in the medium-term future. These tools help identify and develop new opportunities, providing companies with competitive market advantage and long-term stability.

Business Analytics tools include scorecards, dashboards, analytics, data mining and reports with drill downs. BA typically combines high-level data from each department in-order to gain an understanding of how the organization is functioning as a whole. It helps in identifying the critical strength and weakness of the business and presents ways to increase efficiency and enhance revenue. It also enables Mid-Sized Companies to estimate how much investment can be put to use and gain control over inventory investment.

1. How do I know how good my decisions are in various functions Marketing / Finance / HR /Sales Operations?
2. How to decide product pricing and discounts/ deals?
3. What metrics do I track?
   a. Product Metrics e.g. Market share; Market Penetration
   b. Brand Metrics e.g. Brand Salience
   c. Sales Metrics e.g. Channel Productivity
   d. Customer Metrics e.g. Customer Loyalty
4. How different is one customer from another?
   a. Customer Segmentation Technique
5. How do these business marketing metrics swing together?
   a. At the Market Level and Organization Level
        i. Marketing Mix Models
   ii. Impact of Aggregate Advertising on Aggregate SalesHow do these business marketing metrics swing together?
   b. At a customer Level
        i. Consumer Behaviour Metrics
6. Forecasting Propensity to Buy and Propensity to Churn
7. How much to reorder of an existing product line?
8. How can the inventory levels be optimised for maximum profit?
9. How to track the most profitable transaction?
10.  Enhance new product introductions by understanding purchasing trends and better forecasting how different markets and customer segments will respond

Business analytics has become an important requirement for companies that want to be competitive—and stay that way. While certain kinds of advanced analytics have been on the market for decades, adoption is finally increasing for a number of reasons, including the economic climate, the availability of computing power, the growth in the amount and variety of data, and a greater appreciation of the power of analytics. The companies are moving towards more forward-looking analytics in order to increase operational efficiency, reduce fraud and waste, deliver incisive marketing campaigns, improve financial outcomes, and predict business risk

With aspirations of offering greater business value to the customers and to deal with domestic and global competitive challenges, the Mid-Sized Companies in India are turning to true business assessment and performance management solutions.

Forecasting, business analytics and similar tools are vital for them in order to manage the amount of data generated – it grows at an exponential rate with the accumulation of all-types of data – financial & accounting data, sales & marketing data, production data, HR related data, etc.

It is vital not only to possess data; but to be able to analyse it with a view to gain business insight. Unfortunately, this is one task that many Mid-Sized Companies are not equipped do. And this is precisely the reason for the adoption of BA tools by them.

Business analytics tools are a key to transformation success but Mid-Sized Companies struggle with data accuracy and quality. The need of the hour is to empower the sector so that it is able to take its rightful place as the growth engine of the economy. In order to achieve this target, it is necessary to support the Mid-Sized Companies, educate and empower them to make optimum utilization of the resources.

The Mid-Sized Companies need to be educated and informed of the latest developments taking place globally and be helped to acquire skills necessary to keep pace with the global developments.

In order to move up the value chain and increase their penetration, it is fundamental that quality and quantity of relevant data is coming from a structured data source. Most Mid-Sized Companies keep their data in an unstructured format which cannot be used effectively. Database for the large enterprises which can be used for analytics is available at several places in a structured way. For Mid-Sized Companies, this database is not available.

Hence, rated enterprises play a greater role in compiling such granular data which could lead to better analysis of this sector. Rating agencies garner a lot of data while assigning rating to companies and this data is stored in their database, in a structured format and is readily accessible, which can be later used for the benefits of Mid-Sized Companies.

With the help of BA tools, this database created by rating agencies can be integrated with the company specific data to provide these organization users with a complete view of their business performance.

Business Analytics is emerging as a tool in helping Mid-Sized Companies improve their performance and gain real time insight about the business. Mid-Sized Companies can vastly improve the effectiveness and accuracy of business planning without implementing a large and expensive system. Mid-Sized Companies must seriously consider these analytics-based tools which would help improve their sales, optimize inventory, understand customer and product behaviour patterns, etc with a view to build up more efficient, robust, progressive & profitable business.