Advanced analytics: What Is It and What Is the Impact on Companies in Latin America?

Advanced analytics is a set of capabilities that surpass what traditional BI offers, including data science and analysis, artificial and human intelligence.

Companies use it to:

• predict trends and results;
• manage risks in a much improved way;
• have an in-depth view of the entire company;
• make the right decisions;
• lead their markets;
• and grow truly exponentially.

It sounds like utopia, but that's what has been happening to organizations of all sizes around the world—according to data, of course!

To understand the practical impact of AA, we'll detail what advanced analytics entails and how companies that have leveraged this framework—which includes both human and artificial intelligence (AI)—have gained significant advantages in their respective industries.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to message us. Indicium is here to help your business grow! 😃

What is advanced analytics (AA)?

Advanced analytics is a set of capabilities that surpass what traditional BI offers, including data science and analysis, artificial and human intelligence.

AA helps improve business productivity. To achieve this, organizations need to be fully equipped to implement advanced analytics and AI, thus benefitting of much more than instant, integrated data visualization.

Regarding this, we outline two key points below.

Advanced analytics in Latin American companies

First:

Companies that have already implemented AA are growing and leading their markets worldwide. Recent studies by the McKinsey Global Institute show incredible annual growth rates, even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But, interestingly enough, this growth has occurred to a lesser extent in Latin American businesses.

Now, the second thing is, even though it lags behind in comparison to true global leaders in advanced analytics, Latin America faces excellent forecasts when it comes to the achievement of analytical maturity by companies in the region.

Estimates indicate that the value to be unlocked from the use of AI/AA in Latin America is around $0.6 to 1 trillion dollars annually in productivity gains. (McKinsey, 2020).

Think about the current economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even with this critical scenario, we can say that Latin American companies have a great opportunity to increase their productivity with innovation in their segments.

It's time for them to reinvent themselves, generate value, accelerate, improve productivity rates, and maintain growth rates. All of this can and should be done by implementing advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and a lot of training. After all, there is no magic trick.

Even before the humanitarian and economic crisis caused by Covid-19 hit Latin America, the region suffered from low economic growth and the unequal distribution of gains. (McKinsey, 2020)

Although low, what is this growth due to?

There are several factors, but the main one is an increase in labor rather than productivity.

We think you'll agree that, since working with advanced data analytics generates gains for businesses (including those in Latin America!), then it is urgently necessary to apply AA and AI to boost those companies' productivity.

This will certainly accelerate the recovery of the general economy in the region and, consequently, in the world.

How to transform a “business” into a “productive company” with advanced analytics?

To transform your business' productivity, advanced analytics is the way to go. But it's not enough to simply invest in technologies, like expensive data lakes or modern cloud-based analytics infrastructure.

More than 60% of models developed with the intention of operationalization were never actually operationalized. (Gartner Inc.)

To achieve concrete results and impact your business, you need to know how to use advanced data analytics systematically. Doing this involves integrating:

• people,
• processes; and
• tech resources.

In practical terms, let's say you have just decided, "I'm going to invest in this and apply advanced analytics in my company". However:

"Where do I start?"

5 steps to transform your company with advanced analytics

If AA is the way to go, we'll take it step by step.

Right from the start, we warn you: this is the point of no return and an unending route. You will see why.

With all of this place, you will have a new operational model up and running for creating your own analytical models and capturing value from your use cases*.

*Use cases = how do people who use your product or service interact with your company—your system—to solve their problems?

Finally, by combining the analytical models you created with the extracted historical data and leveraging artificial intelligence, you’ll reach advanced analytics. Done! 🎯

Not quite yet...

It's time for advanced analytics to do the work so your company can find the answers to some fundamental questions—something that traditional BI alone does not offer.

And, to carry out this work using advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, you will rely on resources, such as:

• big data analysis;
• network and cluster analysis;
• sentiment analysis;
• statistical/quantitative analysis;
• text analysis;
• pattern matching;
• machine learning;
• data mining‍
• predictive modeling;
• complex event processing;‍
• data visualization;
• multivariate testing.

It's like we said: walking this path—known by the Indicium team as the Data-Driven Journey—is the point of no return and an unending route. When your company starts making use of advanced analytics, this journey never ends.

It will be the beginning of advanced analytical maturity.

Think of it this way: when an athlete reaches their peak, they don't stop. They continue training to continue evolving. That's it!

Advanced analytics: achieve analytical maturity through the Data-Driven Journey

Companies across Latin America, regardless of size or segment, can chart a clear a roadmap and, by truly following it, improve productivity and generate growth in this “new normal”, shifting the landscape of disadvantages.

These organizations can indeed achieve competitive advantages that are sustainable so that they become leaders in their segments.

It was with this in mind that Indicium created the Data-Driven Journey. Our analytical maturity model has already helped—and continues to help—companies assess their data transformation level to maximize business results.

Discover the Data-Driven Journey

The Data-Driven Journey is divided into five stages, and it is essential that you understand implementing a data culture does not happen overnight.

It’s important to clarify that companies in Latin America—and beyond—often face the same challenges when undergoing cultural change.

The primary obstacle?

People.

There’s significant resistance to changing decision-making processes. Some still cling to decisions based solely on experience. Not to mention the immense challenge of aligning schedules, attracting and retaining such fundamental new professionals, overcoming and changing other formal processes etc.

Now, if advanced analytics had a motto, it might be something like this:

So much so that there are Latin American companies in our region which have already overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and are using AA/AI locally to assess the risk of infection and make decisions to protect customers and staff.

Real cases: the current scenario of advanced analytics in Latin America

Let's dive straight into real examples!

As data from the McKinsey Global Institute shows, we have success stories in Latin America, specially during this coronavirus crisis, which serve as an inspiration for all local companies—yours included.

Check out the list of cases the institute featured on their website

• Banks that used AA/AI to identify customers in need of financial assistance and started offering fully customized solutions.
• Retailers leveraging advanced analytics to personalize offers for clients and digital media based on trends, driving rapid sales growth and reducing churn.
• B2B companies using AA/AI to implement improvements in cash flow, stock purchase savings, optimization in various logistics processes, and more, resulting in quick growth impact.

Advanced analytics: what impact will it have on your company?

More than just an instant and integrated business visualization, advanced analytics enables companies to:

• predict trends and results;
• manage risks in a much improved way;
• have an in-depth view of the entire company;
• make the right decisions;
• lead their markets;
• and grow truly exponentially.

You, too, can forecast trends and outcomes. This will ensure better decisions for your company to experience truly exponential growth.

Want to discover the impact that advanced analytics and artificial intelligence can have on your business?

We can help you on this journey. Get in touch here!