COMPARISON OF THE THREE ANALYTIC METHODS
Introduction
Data is an essential tool in businesses today. It helps one to know the current position of the company and how to get to where one intends to be.
Data analysis is the process of getting raw information and transforming it into meaningful information useful for decision making.
In business data analytics, three main methods applied in providing the solutions i.e., predictive, prescriptive, and descriptive analysis. Each technique contributes its value, and their relationship to each other is vital to provide adequate information.
Descriptive analysis uses data from the past to explain what happened in the past and how the business is currently doing. It uses data in the purest summarized form, such as sales numbers, positive reviews, customer statistics, and other metrics. Descriptive analysis reports on what happened and how it influenced the success of the business.
Predictive analysis provides the best recommendations for the future next steps for any business to achieve optimum results. It operates on data from the descriptive analysis and focuses on the key trends and patterns that occurred and applies it to current data. It helps businesses adjust and control the future. The information provided by this method is not factual; it’s just a hypothesis of what might happen. For example, if the sales of flu drugs in a pharmacy are high during the cold season, predictive analysis would prompt the owner to stock the medication right before the season.
Prescriptive analytics helps one develop specific recommendations by taking the information provided by predictive analysis and offers further advice solutions that focus on business success. It gives the business person a variety of choices and their desired outcome. It still uses descriptive data in predicting future effective decisions. For example, a digital map while driving can easily give solutions to the easiest route to use and avoid traffic along the way.
Conclusion
Although the three analytics methods differ, they relate in that descriptive analytics use the past information to explain what happened and how. Predictive and prescriptive analytics use data from the past to provide a hypothesis on what might happen in the future and the best action to take in the business to ensure success.