Overcome your fear of data [10 ways to use it in your everyday life]

Mar 26, 2022 12:00:00 AM

Usos de la analítica

Learn more about the importance of data. Discover how easy it is to use it and how you can adapt it to different business and personal needs.

Data: why is it so important?

As a company specialized in developing telematics technology and new business models for different industries, Location World knows the importance of data analysis, and its key role in the optimization of processes and resources to make operations profitable and get closer to end users.

According to an article in Forbes magazine, the use of advanced analytics is no longer limited only to large companies with enormous capital. According to the magazine, as of 2019, 59% of companies were already using analytics at some level. To what end? Data analysis allows them to have a better understanding of the customer behavior, for example, and open new possibilities of attracting new consumers or retaining existing ones.

But what is advanced analytics and what does it have to do with the use of data? As we explained in another blog post, vehicles, smartphones, computers, weblogs, GPS, sensors, chips, smart cameras, machinery, internet searches, social media, call center logs, and other digital devices and interactions are capable of generating information every day. This allows access to basic information such as gender, age, sector in which they live, purchasing habits, tastes and user preferences.

Read: Big data: what is it, what is it for and why is it so important?

Following the example we mentioned above, for a business that knows its customers better and strengthens its bond with them, accessing data about them and using it in their favor can be crucial for their future development. As we mentioned, through advanced analytics, you can access basic information and important data that will help you make the right choices in your business, based on exact and accurate information, that allows you to create effective marketing strategies.

According to the same Forbes article mentioned above, as of 2019, 49% of respondents stated that analytics enables them to make better decisions. 16% said that it facilitates the design of strategies and key initiatives and 10% said that it helps them improve their relationship, both with their consumers and business partners.

However, to make the most out of the opportunities that data analysis gives us, it is important that the information we gather is actually quality data. Until 2019, according to a study by the Harvard Business Review, only 3% of the data collected daily had any real value.

However, these results were obtained prior to the covid-19 pandemic, the same one that caused a boom in the digital transformation of all companies globally. For this reason, today there is a greater variety of data analysis tools (many of them free), ranging from the simplest, such as Excel, to more complex ones, such as Tableau, RapidMiner, Trifacta, Talend, Qlikview, Orange and H2O.

Marketing y ciencia de datos

10 easy ways to get familiar with data and its main uses

If you still have trouble relating data analysis to the use of practical day-to-day tools, we recommend you start researching and exploring its use in different areas such as:

1.-Advertising. If you have experience in the field of advertising or marketing, or even if you have wanted to promote something as seemingly simple as a social media account, you will know that there are various tools to analyze patterns of your customers and / or audience. Thus, you can know what type of posts or advertising attracts your customers or audience, what’s the best time of day to post something, which words to use, etc.

2.-Your health. If you've ever used a smart watch or even an app on your phone to measure your heart rate per minute or the number of steps you take each day, you're already using the principles of advanced analytics. You can go further and start analyzing sleep patterns, eating habits, physical activity and more. This way you can take your health to the next level and make the best out of the data your own body is giving you, thanks to technology.

3.-Sports performance. Continuing with the previous idea, if you are an athlete or are more committed to physical activity, you will find that today there are countless gadgets and apps that can analyze more complex patterns, predicting the best methods and types of training to, for example, achieve a certain result during a competition.

4.-Mobility. Sure you are familiar with applications like Waze and Google Maps. Every time you use them you are applying data science. Do you remember how you got to a place you didn't know before these apps existed? Things have really changed, right?

5.-Vacuum cleaners and smart homes. IoT (Internet of Things) has had a great development in recent years. If you’re used to be around devices such as Alexa or a robot vacuum cleaner, you are applying data analysis empirically, by providing an electronic device with information about your tastes or the dimensions of your home, to be able to listen to the music you like or keep your house clean without much effort. And if you want to have an even more comfortable and technological life, you could consider the possibility of having a smart home, full of electronic devices, that make your day-to-day life easier. They are becoming quite common!

6.-Business intelligence. This is a similar type of use to data, but on a broader scale. In this case, data analysis is used to measure parameters such as earnings vs. expenses of a business, the turnover of its employees, its level of productivity, error range, etc. in order to make better decisions, aimed at their long-term improvement.

7.-Security. Many governments today use data analytics to analyze crime rates or identify potential terrorist attacks using tools that identify data patterns and prevent potential crimes and tragedies.

8.-Predictive analysis. Have you noticed that when you start searching for the same topic frequently, you start to find related information more easily? This happens because devices such as your computer or cell phone store information related to your searches and preferences, to always be one step ahead of your choices. This advantage can be applied to all types of behavioral analysis: from behavior as a consumer or prediction of psychological behavior of potentially dangerous individuals.

9.-Fraud detection. Advanced analytics can also be used to identify unusual movement on the network and prevent potential scams and fraud. These types of uses are can be found in tools such as the famous captcha or two-factor authentication, among other more advanced ones.

10.-Offers and discounts. A use that is common in large supermarket or food chains is the use of data from their consumers to identify long-term patterns and recognize the best moments to offer promotions and discounts and obtain better results.

Advanced analytics and its application to the transportation industry

You already know the wide range of uses that can be given to data and its specialized interpretation. At Location World we have taken the best of these tools and applied them to the development of the vehicle industry in Latin America, through our solutions, CarSync Drive and CarSync Fleet, thanks to which we offer total control of your personal and commercial vehicles. Our main goal is to optimize every aspect of the vehicular transport business and strengthen a safety culture in Latin America.

Learning more about advanced data handling

Did you see yourself reflected in any of the previously described examples? Did they pique your interest? If you want to learn even more about the use of data, advanced analytics, big data and how to apply them to your specific needs, there are several free courses online with which you can start to immerse yourself in the subject. You can also choose to explore using the advanced analytics tools mentioned above.

And if you want to go even further and train a little more professionally in the field of data analysis and advanced analytics, there are official short-term courses at prestigious universities around the world, whose prices range between $3,000 and $5,000 dollars.

Do you want to know even more about the use of data and its application to the transport industry? Follow the content of Location World and let yourself be guided by the experts.