What is Decision Analytics?

According to a 2021 Gartner study, 65% of decisions made are more complex (involving more stakeholders or choices) than they were two years ago. The challenge is, the growing rate of complexity is unsustainable without a way to process the ever increasing complexities.

So, how do we deal with these growing complexities? Decision Analytics. 

What is Decision Analytics? 

Decision analytics is the systematic approach to applying quantitative techniques in which output will help inform decision making.

As data-driven cultures evolved, so did the strategies for applying data to decision making. Models, algorithms, and AI/Machine Learning (ML) emerged to help process the data. However, the practices of processing the data and making decisions weren’t always aligned, as they were typically done by two different teams.

There are a lot of great models and applications of machine learning that don’t get used there because the data scientists who create them are often disconnected from the business user and the challenge they are trying to solve. As a result, they fail to see the decisions their output will inform. One solution is to have the decision makers be more closely involved with the data process and analysis, as they best understand the possible next actions.

Predictive Analytics as Your Solution

There are many ways to approach decision analytics, but one of the most reliable, scalable and sustainable options is automated predictive analytics. Automated predictive analytics is a solution that allows business users to run their own data sciences analyses, putting the business question at the forefront to get the prediction that informs decision making. 

The Citizen Data Scientist

Squark’s end-to-end solution automates the entire process of data science / predictive analytics modeling in just a few clicks. Squark gives the power to the citizen data scientist, the person closely connected with the decisions and actions for driving the business forward. 

Take the email marketer, for example, who is trying to decide what offer, if any, to include in the next email targeting returning customers. Does the marketer use 20% off, $10 off, or no offer – all offers tested in the past. Here is how that marketer would make that decision using Squark: 

• Upload the past and current customer data via intelligent connectors.
• Select a regression (which of more than two options) analysis is the customer most likely to respond.
• Squark automatically applies cutting-edge data processing, featuring engineering and data modeling tested against thousands of models on the past data.
• The best predictive model then gets applied to your current customer data, the email list that she’d like to convert. 
• The results get displayed in easy-to-read tables and can be automatically sent back into their original platform to be actioned off. 

It is a systematic and quantitative approach that provides an output to help inform the next best decision in driving customer behavior and the business forward.

Takeaway: Decisions are more complex than ever, as is the pressure to get them right. An automated predictive analytics solution helps businesses quickly and confidently get to the right decision by predicting future outcomes.