Data Analytics Processes in Business

The New Frontier: Data Analytics

Effective use of data has become the basis of competition in the modern business world given that the concept of creating business value is not new. Businesses have always wanted to obtain insights from information in order to enhance their competitiveness. The focus on deriving insights from information is a critical factor in enhancing competition since it promotes better, factual, smarter, and real-time decision making among businesses. Recent technological advancements have played a crucial in businesses’ pursuit for improved decision-making in terms of obtaining insights from data/information. As a result, data analytics has emerged as the new frontier in enhancing the competitiveness of business organizations. The demand for enhanced business decisions has contributed to the growth of big data platforms and tools. This paper examines the use of data analytics by Caesars Entertainment to enhance competitiveness.

Definition and Overview of Evolution of Data Analytics in Business
Data analytics is a concept that refers to process of collecting, organizing, and evaluating data sets in order to identify patterns and other useful information (Ernst & Young, 2014). Data sets that are analyzed through data analytics processes are usually large and disparate volumes of information that are created by people, machines, and tools. Data analytics requires the use of new, innovative and scalable technological tools to collect, organize, and evaluate data sets to obtain meaningful information. For business organizations, data analytics help in obtaining real-time business insights with regards to customers, performance, risks, productivity management, profits, and shareholder value addition.
The concept of data analytics is not new in the business world because business organizations have through the years been looking for ways to obtain insights from information in order to enhance their decision-making processes. While this concept is not new, it has gained considerable traction in the recent past because of rapid technological advancements. These technological advancements have increased access to information among business and customers. The improved access to information has in turn enhanced the need for businesses to improve their decision-making capabilities in order to enhance their growth and success. As a result, business organizations have been involved in the development of big data analytics tools to enhance their decision-making capabilities (Ernst & Young, 2014). The increased creation of big data analytics tools, data analysis has developed to become an important aspect in the modern business world with regards to enhancing competitiveness, operations, and success. One of the major periods in the history and evolution data analytics was in the early 2000s when Analytics 2.0 was developed in Silicon Valley, which prompted the application of unstructured information (Handfield, 2013). This generated a new role in the business field known as Data Scientist to help in transforming unstructured data into useful information for businesses.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Data Analytics
An example of a company that utilized data analytics in its operations is Caesars Entertainment, which is an American gaming corporation that is headquartered in Paradise, Nevada. The company owns and runs various hotels, casinos, and golf courses under different brands. The advantages of using data analytics at Caesars Entertainment include improved and better decision making, cost reduction in terms of storage of large volumes of data, and enhanced creation of products and services that meet customers’ needs. These advantages emerge are attributable to the fact that data analytics enhance the company’s value proposition. The other advantage brought by enhanced value proposition due to the use of data analytics by Caesars Entertainment is improved competitive advantage over its rivals. Caesars Entertainment has gained significant competitive advantage over its rivals through using data analytics tools to improve and support its business strategy.
However, there are some disadvantages of the use of data analytics by this company including additional difficulties in business operations because of challenges in finding the appropriate data analytics tools that enable the firm to generate value (McKinsey & Company, 2016). Moreover, the company experiences challenges in streamlining the integration of these tools in business processes because the technology is changing and evolving rapidly. Therefore, these challenges generate numerous operational difficulties that could have negative impacts on the company’s profitability and competitiveness in the market. The other disadvantage of using data analytics at Caesars Entertainment is difficulties in recruiting and retaining a base of talent within the organization. This disadvantage emerges from the fact that competition for analytical talent has increased significantly and made it difficult for organizations to recruit and retain the best analytical talent in their workforce (McKinsey & Company, 2016).
Fundamental Challenges for Business Management
Even though business analytics has the potential to transform how business organizations operate and their competitiveness in the market, there are some fundamental obstacles and challenges that business management must overcome to implement data analytics. As evident in the case of Caesars Entertainment, one of these fundamental challenges is identifying the most suitable data analytic tools that will enable the business to enhance value creation through data analytics process (McKinsey & Company, 2016). This is a fundamental challenge given that business organizations are struggling to identify a cohesive data analytic ecosystem that is fully integrated. The second fundamental challenge that must be overcome by business management in order to implement data analytics is making the transition from a knowing culture to a learning culture. This is primarily because implementation of data analytics requires an organizational culture that is objective and data-driven as well as one that embraces the power of technology and data. The other fundamental challenge is determination of ownership and privacy issues associated with using big data results (Ernst & Young, 2014). The implementation of data analytics requires organizations to redefine their understanding of judgments with regards to the results of data analytics.
Given these challenges, the most suitable strategy that business management could utilize to overcome these fundamental challenges/obstacles is managing data through a variety of sources and integrating its usefulness through a series of technologies in the market (Ernst & Young, 2014). This is a suitable strategy it enables an organization to develop a single infrastructure for its data analytics processes while having the capability to store data at the lowest level of detail in a cost-effective and timely manner.
Impact of Data Analytics on Customer Responsiveness and Satisfaction
Apart from the advantages of data analytics in Caesars Entertainment’s operations, these processes have had significant impacts on the company’s customer responsiveness and satisfaction. One of the impacts of the use of data analytics on the firm’s customer responsiveness and satisfaction is enhanced customer engagement. Data analytics has enabled Caesars Entertainment to enhance its interactions with customers and obtain meaningful insights from customer information. This has provided a framework through which the firm has increased its understanding of customers and enhanced one-on-one communication. Secondly, data analytics has enabled Caesars Entertainment to develop products and services that are tailored to the individual needs of customers, which has in turn enhanced customer satisfaction. In this case, the company has transformed data obtained from customers into meaningful information that shapes its products and service development. Through data analytics processes, Caesars Entertainment’s product development initiatives have become customer-driven, which has in turn enhanced their responsiveness and satisfaction.
Trend of Future Use of Data Analytics by Caesars Entertainment
Given the impact that data analytics has had on the operations and competitiveness of Caesars Entertainment, the company will continue to utilize data analytics in future operations. The company is highly likely to develop and/or identify its own data analytics tools within the next decade given the current challenges it’s experiencing in identifying a suitable data analytics tool for value creation (McKinsey & Company, 2016). The development/identification of a suitable data analytics tool will in turn promote full integration of these processes in Caesars Entertainment’s operations. Additionally, the company is likely to develop sound and flexible fundamentals that will address its present and future data requirements over the next decade.
Some additional types of data that one could collect through the use of data analytics include diagnostic and predictive data. Predictive data focuses on forecasting what might happen in the future while diagnostic data is centered on evaluating past performance. These additional types of data will be collected because of the increased integration of data analytics in business operations. Since organizations are utilizing data analytics to improve operations, they collect diagnostic and predictive data to help understand reasons for current performance and enhance their operations based on what is likely to happen in the foreseeable future.
In conclusion, data analytics has emerged as the new frontier in the modern business environment though the concept has existed for a long period of time. The increased use of business analytics in the modern business environment is attributable to its impact on operations and competitiveness of business organizations. As evident in the case of Caesars Entertainment, there are some advantages and disadvantages of data analytics. The effective implementation of data analytics require the use of a suitable strategy by the business management based on the existing organizational culture.


References
Ernst & Young. (2014, April). Big Data: Changing the Way Businesses Compete and Operate. Retrieved October 13, 2017, from http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY_-_Big_data:_changing_the_way_businesses_operate/%24FILE/EY-Insights-on-GRC-Big-data.pdf
Handfield, R. (2013, September 26). A Brief History of Big Data Analytics. Retrieved October 13, 2017, from http://iianalytics.com/research/a-brief-history-of-big-data-analytics
McKinsey & Company. (2016, April). How Companies Are Using Big Data and Analytics. Retrieved October 13, 2017, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/how-companies-are-using-big-data-and-analytics