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6 best places to get free data sets for your latest project
When working on a data-related project, it’s essential to perform tests and make sure the specifics of what you’re doing function as they should. It’s often impossible to make that verification without using test data sets.
The internet offers numerous places to get those, thereby keeping your project on schedule and boosting its chances of success. Here are six of them.
FiveThirtyEight is a current affairs website that provides the public with the data used for its articles and infographics. It got its start as a polling aggregator solely focused on political topics but has since branched out to cover sports, societal matters and more.
You can also visit the FiveThirtyEight Github. The data there ranges from information about which states have the worst drivers to the economic worth of different college majors. The broad range of information makes it an excellent resource for continuously curious people.
2. Kaggle
This website has a wealth of information beyond data sets, but it’s easy to narrow down your search. After arriving at the Kaggle homepage, look for the search box at the top of the page. Then, use the “in: datasets” tag.
For example, to get data about shopping, enter “shopping in: datasets” into the search box. Alternatively, click the Datasets menu at the top of the homepage to browse instead of getting specific. There is also a search box at the top right of the primary data section.
Digging into a particular data set is simple. Click on the link associated with one of them. Then, choose the Data tab at the top of the page to get the necessary files.
3. Data.gov
Representing an initiative from the U.S. government to make the data it collects more accessible to the public, this website is one of the places offering free data sets for people who need or want them.
The site is refreshingly user-friendly and breaks down the data by topic in addition to enabling keyword searches. Also, Data.gov offers more than 100,000 data sets with more added every night.
Many people say machine learning is taking over our lives for the better. Whether your data science project is for something related to machine learning or not, Data.gov highlights how so much of the information collected today is associated with human existence and has the potential to improve it.
4. Software With Sample Data Sets Included
Some tools come with built-in data sets for you to use.
“By displaying location or address-based business data against an accurate map, the map viewer can visualize their typical business data in a new way,” says Geoffrey Ives, President of Map Business Online. “By including both location-based map layers and demographic data in Map Business Online we have increased the value of these map visualizations.”
If you need data related to geography or population, Map Business Online sources material from the U.S. Census Bureau and Geolytics, Inc for users. Plus, it includes data from Canada and the United Kingdom. You can get statistics related to ethnicity, occupation, marital status and much more.
Similarly, people who purchase the Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox from MathWorks get various sample data sets to work with as well. They include simulated data about hospitals, mileage information for particular kinds of cars and even statistics about popcorn.
If you’d rather not search for data to import into the tools you use, consider options like those discussed directly above. The built-in information they offer could streamline your data science processes.
There are data sets for numerous purposes, and you may need a particular type for a current project. If you’re making a tool that gives recommendations to people, the GroupLens site offers its MovieLens data sets that could help you.
As the name suggests, it has information about films — specifically, the ratings attributed to those movies by the people who watched them. One of the data sets offers 20 million ratings.
Most of the data sets mention the number of movies and ratings contained within. If you’re experimenting with big data, pay attention to those figures in your research.
6. Climate Data Online
The information on Climate Data Online is in expandable sections related to seasonal temperatures, wind direction, hourly precipitation and other topics related to the Earth and its detectable characteristics.
Click on one of the topic headers to expand the information below it. Use the Documentation and Data Samples drop-down menu to get a spreadsheet’s worth of content for your project.
Reliable Data Without Hassles
These sites highlight how valuable data is only an internet search away, and much of it is available for free — either through a trial period or entirely open access.
Instead of relying on too much guesswork when working on data-centric projects, use these sets to test for the desired function.
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8 common pitfalls that can ruin your prediction
Do you remember that feeling when you plan everything very precisely, but something happens unexpectedly and ruins your plans? It’s always an awkward situation, but it can also be a costly mistake in case it’s related to your business.
Making a poor estimation is not uncommon in big data. According to the research, more than 80% of companies are trying to be data-driven, but only a third say they do it successfully. It seems like huge volumes of information that keep piling up can be a genuine riddle for many business analysts.
In this article, I will briefly explain 8 common pitfalls that can ruin your predictions.
1. Lack a Business Case
Big data can draw meaningful conclusions out of seemingly unrelated information, but you still need a concrete business case to make use of these results. This is the only way to make big data truly applicable. For instance, you cannot simply analyze brand awareness on social media.
Instead, you need to use big data to improve brand image by setting clear parameters such as direct and indirect influence, geolocation, engagement, etc. Once you detect followers’ behavioral patterns, you can adjust social media strategy so as to increase brand awareness.
2. Poor data quality
The outcome of big data analysis depends on the quality of information. This is particularly the case with unstructured and semi-structured data because they need a pre-processing adaptation. Business intelligence managers at Rushmyessay UK explained that you should filter textual information through language correction libraries to polish the content. Image and video data quality are acquired from the source, but you always need quality data to generate accurate results.
3. Data Lifecycle
Timing plays a key role in comparative analytics, but many predictions go terribly wrong because they don’t take data lifecycle into the calculation. Let’s say you started importing a product in April 2017, so there are no sell-in parameters for the first quarter of the year. If your import prediction for Q1 2018 equals zero, you’ve made a big mistake.
It only suggests you should add more indicators to the research and come up with a more accurate estimation. For example, you could compare this product’s sellout with similar items you already had in your portfolio. Such data lifecycle awareness will lead you to the completely different outcome.
4. False Aggregations
Creating complex forecasts, you will often need to take into account individual events of a larger phenomenon. Some analysts don’t realize it and make false aggregations, which is the wrong way to analyze multilevel processes. If the first phase of an event is likely to occur in February, while the last should take place in October, the process itself will not end in June. There is no in-between result, so don’t make this kind of false aggregations.
5. Overfitting
While some companies create forecasts based on low-quality data, others make the mistake of overfitting. They add various highly specific indicators to the formula, but still expect to obtain a useful general prediction.
To put it simply, a good prediction would be to say that Cleveland Cavaliers win if LeBron James scores more than 40 points. On the other hand, overfitting happens if you claim that Cavs always win when:
- James scores 41-43 points
- The number of spectators is over 16 thousand
- The opponent ranks 3rd in Western Conference
- The number of fouls does not go under 31
6. Forecast What You Can Measure
Big data operates with huge resources of information, but it doesn’t mean you can use it to extrapolate everything using the same formula. On the contrary, you can only create forecasts based on measurable indicators. If you have to design daily transportation and delivery plans, the setup is completely different than weekly predictions. But in case you rely on weekly projections, your day-to-day planning will probably end up chaotic. Read the odds of foretelling rains and why monsoon prediction is hard.
7. Don’t Realize Data Complexity
Data pile up in different formats, leaving most people confused and unprepared. For instance, you might want to analyze social impact of the brand, Twitter and LinkedIn in particular. The two platforms are completely opposite in nature – while tweets take not more than 140 characters, LinkedIn posts are usually much longer and descriptive. Each data set here demands a different combination of processing cycles, so you must adapt it to gather the same type of results for both networks.
8. Not Measuring Big Data Efficiency
Big data is not perfect and you need to measure its efficiency. First of all, it will help you to understand the accuracy of the prediction model. Secondly, the business is changing and you will have to adapt your big data technique at some point. And thirdly, if your forecasts turn out to be too bad or too precise, there is probably something wrong with it, so you should find and fix the error.
CONCLUSION
Big data has the potential to give a fresh boost to your business, but it can also ruin it in case you make false predictions. A lot of data analysts make mistakes while designing plans and projections, so you need to be aware of the most frequent cases.
In this post, we showed you 8 common pitfalls that can ruin your predictions. Did you face any of the problems already? Do you know other examples of false big data estimations? Share your experiences in comments and we’ll be glad to discuss it!
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Top Business Intelligence (BI) tools in the market
This article aims to list all top BI (Business Intelligence) products available on the market. It should help interested users to compare and select the best solution for their needs. According to the list of best business intelligence tools prepared by experts from FinancesOnline the leading solutions in this category comprise of systems designed to capture, categorize, and analyze corporate data and extract best practices for improved decision making. The more advanced the system is, the more data sources it will combine, including internal metrics coming from different company departments, and external data extracted from third-party systems, social media channels, emails, or even macroeconomic data. Ultimately, business intelligence software helps companies gain insight on their overall growth, sales trends, and customer behavior.
1. Sisense
Sisense is one of the leaders in the BI market and a winner of the Best Business Intelligence Software Award for 2016 from FinancesOnline, one of the most popular business software review platforms. This solution capable to effectively simplify complex data analyses, and make big data insights accessible even for startups and small companies. The competitive edge of Sisense is primarily its capacity to collate data from multiple sources without pricey preparations (sources can be Salesforce, Google Analytics, AdWords, and many more). Users will also enjoy the tool’s very efficient use of in-chip technology in a database that processes data 10 times faster than traditional systems. Sisense also works with the innovative ElastiCube technology, which means it can import large sets of data and work with any CPU layout without compromising the quality of your results. If you are interested to learn more about its features you can actually try out the software yourself with a great free trial plan they offer. You can easily sign up for Sisense free trial here.
2. Actuate Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT)
BIRT project is a flexible, open source, and 100% pure Java reporting tool for building and publishing reports against data sources ranging from typical business relational databases, to XML data sources, to in-memory Java objects. BIRT is developed as a top-level project within the Eclipse Foundation and leverages the rich capabilities of the Eclipse platform and a very active open source community of users. Using BIRT, developers of all levels can incorporate powerful reporting into their Java, J2EE and Eclipse-based applications.
3. icCube
icCube is a SaaS end to end BI platform, specialized to be embedded in your application. Deploy it on premises, in the cloud or make use of one of their managed services and enjoy a short time to market for custom feature requests. It integrates seamlessly with any application because of the on-the-fly-authentication and authorization (up to cell level), the ability to connect and combine any custom data source, direct access to Java and R, a web based dashboard builder and the ability to graphically design widgets from scratch. Basically, icCube is the dream for any software developer who needs to provide predefined dashboards or a solid web based self service BI solution, to their end-users.
4. Domo
Domo’s Business Optimization Software brings together the people, the data, and the insights business users need to deliver a detailed view of what’s happening in your organization. Connect all of your crucial business data, collaborate with fellow employees, and get powerful visual data—all within one customizable platform.
5. Board Management Intelligence Toolkit
BOARD toolkit combines various BI and CPM functionalities within a single graphical software environment. BOARD’s BI capabilities include multi-dimensional analysis, ad hoc querying, dashboarding and reporting, while its CPM capabilities include budgeting, planning and forecasting as well as “other finance-related activities”.Like Business Intelligence software in general, BOARD is used in an effort to improve productivity and decision making while lowering costs. It does not require any programming skills to build BI and CPM applications.
Clear Analytics is incredibly intuitive Excel-based solution with minimal training required. Employees with a basic knowledge of Excel can learn the system rapidly, so businesses can implement a fully-operational, self-service Business Intelligence system with little downtime and almost no learning curve. Clear Analytics offers a variety of BI-specific features to help generate, automate, analyze, and visualize a company’s key data and information. Clear Analytics also enables consolidation of data from multiple data sources and all within excel.
7. Ducen
Companies need to keep an eye on every revenue generating event and cost saving opportunity while improving customer satisfaction and retention. By combining historical data with real-time operational data for analysis, business users can make more informed, proactive decisions. However, to achieve these efficiencies, data must be available real-time.
8. Gooddata
GoodData powers the All Data Enterprise by offering an Open Analytics Platform that supports both IT’s need for Data Governance, security and oversight and business users desires for self-service Data Discovery.The platform consolidates data of any size, typically found both inside organizations and in the cloud, creating an analytic experience that is both fast and agile for users, yet protected, managed and secured for IT.
Information silos, multiple platforms and excessive reliance on spreadsheets can hinder the process of analyzing your business data to understand performance and recommend improvements With business analysis software from IBM, you can explore information from different angles and perspectives and compare it with data in motion and trends for a more extensive view of your business. The facts you need for better results are right at your fingertips.
10. Insightsquared
Successful sales strategy is dependent on understanding the customer. But for small and medium businesses building up the kind of intelligence database needed can be time consuming and take staff away from the task of actually selling. It can be many months before the implementation of a traditional sales intelligence platform bears fruit.
11. JasperSoft
The Jaspersoft Business Intelligence Suite offers a number of ways for end users to perform interactive analysis. For the most casual user, this might involve simply changing a filter setting on a report to view a different slice of data. For a data analyst this could mean writing powerful, multi-dimensional expressions.
12. Looker
Looker is a data-discovery platform that helps companies make better business decisions through real-time access to data. Data, no matter the size, can be analysed within Looker’s 100% in-database and 100% browser-based platform. Looker analytics integrate with any SQL database or data warehouse, such as Amazon Redshift and Greenplum.
Microsoft Business Intelligence platform include Analysis Services, Integration Services, Master Data Services, Reporting Services, and several client applications used for creating or working with analytical data. This section of the SQL Server Setup documentation explains how to install these features. Analysis Services and Reporting Services can be installed as standalone servers, in scale-out configurations, or as shared service applications in a SharePoint farm. Installing the services in a farm enables BI features that are only available in SharePoint, including PowerPivot for SharePoint and Power View, the Reporting Services ad hoc interactive report designer that runs on PowerPivot or Analysis Services tabular model databases.
14. MicroStrategy
From local spreadsheet data to enterprise data systems to cloud-based data, MicroStrategy provides effortless access to all business data from one place. Use data connectors that are optimized for each source, and allow queries to reach their greatest performance potential. Connect to one source or many, separately or in combination. Gain the pure play advantage of superior R&D focus on strong technology partnerships and high speed analytics.
15. MITS
Over 1,000 companies are using MITS Distributor and Manufacturer Analytics to empower everyone—from the CEO to purchasers to sales reps—to make better decisions with tools designed specifically for their role. By combining flexible, user-friendly business intelligence tools with premade and customizable reports, dashboards, and scorecards ready to run for your business systems, MITS helps users quickly gain value from their analytics and business system investments through improvements in cash flow, profitability, and business growth.
16. OpenI
OpenI provides a web-driven interface to build and publish interactive reports from OLAP data sources. Going beyond that, OpenI aims to provide consolidated analysis from all the key data components of an intelligent application. Our key goal is to take away the complexity of creating and publishing reports for business users. OpenI does this by providing a clean, intuitive interface to connect to different types of data sources, and to publish web-based interactive reports. If you want to build web-based intelligent applications that interact with your OLAP data sources.
17. Oracle BI
Oracle BI is a comprehensive collection of enterprise business intelligence functionality that provides the full range of business intelligence capabilities, including dashboards, full ad hoc, proactive intelligence and alerts, and so on. Typically, organizations track and store large amounts of data about products, customers, prices, contacts, activities, assets, opportunities, employees, and other elements. This data is often spread across multiple databases in different locations with different versions of database software.
18. Oracle Enterprise BI Server
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g is a comprehensive business intelligence platform that delivers a full range of capabilities including interactive dashboards, ad hoc queries, notifications and alerts, enterprise and financial reporting, scorecard and strategy management, business process invocation, search and collaboration, mobile, integrated systems management and more. OBIEE 11g is based on a proven web service-oriented unified architecture that integrates with an organization’s existing information technology infrastructure for the lowest total cost of ownership and highest return on investment.
Oracle acquired Hyperion, a leading provider of performance management software. The transaction extends Oracle’s business intelligence capabilities to offer the most comprehensive system for enterprise performance management. The acquisition of Hyperion extends our business intelligence product strategy. Customers are increasingly using performance management and business intelligence together. Hyperion adds complementary products to Oracle’s business intelligence offerings including a leading enterprise planning solution, world-class financial close and reporting products, and a powerful multi-source OLAP server. Coupled with Oracle’s BI tools and pre-packaged analytic applications, the combination redefines business intelligence and performance management.
20. Palo OLAP Server
Palo is a memory resident multidimensional (online analytical processing (OLAP) or multidimensional online analytical processing (MOLAP)) database server and typically used as a business intelligence tool for controlling and budgeting purposes with spreadsheet software acting as the user interface. Beyond the multidimensional data concept, Palo enables multiple users to share one centralised data storage.
21. Pentaho
Pentaho addresses the barriers that block your organization’s ability to get value from all your data. Our platform simplifies preparing and blending any data and includes a spectrum of tools to easily analyze, visualize, explore, report and predict. Open, embeddable and extensible, Pentaho is architected to ensure that each member of your team — from developers to business users can easily translate data into value.
22. Profit base
Profitbase SIM is a full scale financial planning and simulation tool for budgeting and forecasting where Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow statements are fully integrated. SIM enables management to simulate business scenarios and immediately see the financial impact. SIM delivers a wide selection of standard reports, graphical charts and features seamless integration with Profitbase Studio and WebPlan.
23. QlikView
The QlikView Business Discovery platform delivers true self-service BI that empowers business users by driving innovative decision-making,Develop, enhance, re-engineer, maintain and support QlikView applications to create robust services around business requirements to inform business decision-making and Understand all the data that the business holds and create sustainable reporting solutions ensuring the accuracy of the data.
24. Rapid insight
Rapid Insight is a leading provider of business intelligence and automated predictive analytics software. With a focus on ease of use and efficiency, Rapid Insight products enable users to turn their raw data into actionable information. The company’s analytic software simplifies the extraction and analysis of data, enabling clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to fully utilize their information for data-driven decision making.
Predictive analytics give your decision makers the insight they need to predict new developments, capitalize on future trends, and respond to challenges before they happen. SAP’s market-leading combination of real-time business intelligence (BI) and predictive analytics make it easy for you to extract forward-looking insights from Big Data, harness the power of R, and create stunning data visualizations with ease.
SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office is an Office add-in that allows multidimensional ad-hoc analysis of OLAP sources in Excel. It also allows, Excel workbook-based application design and creation of BI presentations in PowerPoint. It perfectly connects to SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP HANA.
27. SAP NetWeaver BW
Quickly Capture, store, and consolidate your vital information with our real-time data warehouse platform. Tightly integrate your warehousing capabilities for a single version of the truth, decision-ready business intelligence, and accelerated operations.Supercharge your data warehouse environment with SAP Business Warehouse powered by SAP HANA.
28. SAS BI
According to Forrester, SAS has not only been a market leader in advanced predictive analytics, but also a provider of a formidable BI platform. Customers select SAS for its well-integrated, one-stop platform, a significant part of which is its BI capabilities. SAS provides scalability, excellent data integration, multiple query languages, internationalization, customization through a rich set of APIs, advanced analytics tools, MDM, performance management, and reporting and querying. SAS ranks eighth on number of Forrester BI inquiries. Recent market survey data indicates that 14% of corporate customers depend on SAS for their BI needs.
29. Silvon
Business Intelligence solution provider Silvon Software, Inc.to bring a powerful, web-based business analysis software interface to retailers. Under the terms of the agreement, RPE will market Silvon’s Viewer interface for Performance Analysis by IDEAS, a client-server BI application for JDA Software Group’s Merchandise Management System. This new optional interface for Performance Analysis by IDEAS will provide many added features for today’s mobile professionals.
30. Solver
The solver in excel is part of an analysis tool known as “what ifs analysis”. You can use solver to ascertain an optimal value in one cell known as the “target cell”. Basically, solver is used for a group of cells that are directly or indirectly related. Constraints can also be applied to minimize the value that can be used by Solver. This article will provide step-by-step guide on how to use solver to find solution to a business problem.
31. SpagoBI
SpagoBI supports the real-time monitoring, analysis and presentation of business data and processes. You can keep business processes under control by constantly monitoring their state.SpagoBI allows you to go further than this: you can detect inefficiencies and bottlenecks in your business processes, promptly react to events requiring quick decision making, as well as discover new business opportunities hidden in your own data.
32. SQL Server Analysis Services
Server Analysis Services platform, build high performance analytical models (multidimensional and tabular) that can be used for interactive data analysis, reporting, and visualization. SQL Server provides a comprehensive analytical and modeling experience to support rapid solution prototyping and support for the largest enterprise-grade solutions.
Style Intelligence is business intelligence software for dashboards, reporting, visual analysis, and data mashups. It blends enterprise strength with a small, 100% Java footprint. Unlike traditional BI platforms, Style Intelligence does not require specialized BI skills or consultants to implement or use. It delivers maximum self-service that is both end-user and IT-friendlier than other BI solutions.
Syntel’s Technology Outsourcing services deliver value and provide solutions that transcend platforms. Leverage Syntel’s expertise in managing business processes, systems and platforms in order to reap the benefits of an innovative and collaborative outsourcing partnership. Syntel understands your pain points and offers a set of distinctive services that enhance your operations across the applications and IT environments. Syntel designs a client-specific strategy to achieve your desired objectives, and our services help you create a strategy based on the value to your business.
35. Targit
TARGIT fights all unnecessary clicks that only make your life difficult. TARGIT BI Suite has a very unique and intuitive user interface you have to see it to believe it! You will experience an integrated and ready-to-use set of tools which enables you to create intelligent dashboards, revealing analyses and insightful reports in fewer clicks than with any other Business Intelligence solution on the market. TARGIT will accelerate decision making, increase operational awareness, and improve performance across the organization. TARGIT BI Suite is so easy to use that all employees can follow trends, create all types of analyses, and make decisions.
36. Vismatica
Vismatica by IronRock Software is powerful data visualization solution geared toward small to medium businesses. Dashboard development tools make up the core of this system, but Vismatica also empowers you to create powerful data collection forms and conduct data analysis. It can be deployed on premise or over the web as a hosted solution. Vismatica comes with additional features for sharing documents and designing web applications.
37. WebFOCUS
The WebFOCUS Business Intelligence and Analytics platform empowers everyone in your organization to make smarter, more confident decisions. WebFOCUS extends to your customers and partners, too, giving them easy access to analytic apps and tools from any browser or mobile device.
38. Yellowfin BI
Data to dashboards Yellowfin delivers a brilliant analytical experience. Our interface is more than beautiful it provides all the data discovery features that you will ever need. All this whilst providing a fine balance between the ease of use business users require and the governance needs of enterprise IT.
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Big Data & GDPR: A huge opportunity for businesses to outshine competition?
With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now implemented in the European Union, companies now find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented and challenging data landscape. The affect which GDPR may have on big data and the way companies use personal information may potentially be seismic. So where do we go from here?
Onwards and upwards, would be the answer. This regulation is the first step towards establishing order out of chaos in the digital age. GDPR will effectively give consumers more control over who holds their data and how it is processed.
While the media in Europe focuses on the general apathy of the common consumer when it comes to GDPR, privacy activists are celebrating a victory of sorts. The bombardment of emails from companies requesting consent for data processing have been peppering the average European’s inboxes over the past week or so. This has led to synchronized head-scratching across the continent, which some campaigners are only happy to highlight for their own gains.
Therefore, it is likely that the relationship between some companies and the individual has irreversibly changed with the implementation of GDPR. Institutions which could maintain a stance of relative anonymity to the consumer – ironically enough – must now let their presence and intentions be known. More than this, they must ask for consent to sustain the fundamentals of the distant relationship they had prior to May 25.
Going forward, not every company will be able to maneuver their position when it comes to collecting data with ease. In comparison, a company such as Focused Collection – which stocks trending images and offers a bright business solution – will naturally find it easier to navigate this path. By nature, creative and pioneering companies carry a softer and more tactful approach to data collection in comparison to legacy industries like banks and similar outfits, which predate but rely heavily on the tech industry.
So why is this? Well, it would come down to a number of factors which are punctuated by necessity. Consumers are aware and accepting of a financial institution’s requirement for basic data such as birth dates, addresses, and identification. Just how that company knows their consumer habits and how far they are in their pregnancy is the worry. With other companies – especially those in the manufacturing and healthcare industries – there will be an enhanced paranoia with some that the way their personal data is being processed can come back to bite them in the butt.
The perceived unmasking of big data and its nefarious intentions before the eyes of the docile masses is what is being pushed by campaigners right now. The idea of capitalism homogenizing society off the back of data organization is the stone with which they sharpen their swords. The problem for these crusaders is that big data is the oil which fuels the capitalistic engine, and this is inexorable. Rather than drive a spear through the heart of the machine, it seems that they will, for now, settle for inadvertently leading to the necessity for new ideas and a modified model.
For companies who perceive GDPR as a negative, crushing enforcement, the risk is that they will be surpassed by companies which have embraced it as an opportunity. This can essentially be a chance for businesses not just to splash out on ensuring compliance with the regulation, but to focus on engaging more with the individual. You want an opportunity to get the consumer’s attention? Here it is! The institutions which use GDPR in their favor are likely to be the ones that gain from it.
For many, big data is a term which has evaded their consciousness, despite it being around for quite some time. Across the bloc, consumers are being forced to enter passwords, agree to changes in terms and conditions, and provide explicit consent for companies to hold and process personal data. Could signing up for that health camp in 2015 mean that your personal information is being used to target you without your knowledge? Perhaps, but while Thomas in accounting did agree to that in principle – and it was not unlawful at that time – it is now.
By acting now – and ensuring the PR department and most creative minds within the business are firing off on all cylinders – companies can earn even more data, which gives them a huge head start over rivals. By establishing the foundation of trust, this is even more achievable than without GDPR.
In an entrepreneurial sense, it allows companies to rejuvenate the importance of customer experience. From here, the promotion of convenience to the individual can bolster the data and information that person is likely to want to hand over. It is a win-win situation for companies who capitalize on the drive to bring the individual out in big data.
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7 ways to utilize your website traffic data
You’ve created a website. You’ve put out some great content. And you’ve even gated some of it using a WordPress membership plugin. Now you’re actually ranking pretty well on Google and your organic traffic isn’t looking half-bad either. But what does any of that actually mean for your business?
Analytics let you look at what that traffic is. Where is it coming from? What pages are those visitors looking at and for how long? What is your most popular content? Who are the people visiting your site anyway? Are you reaching your ideal customers? Are you actually writing for your targeted buyer personas?
There are countless ways you can use your website traffic data to answer these questions. Here are a few of the key ones, and how they can affect your future actions.
Convey the right message
How do you tell if your message is effective or not? This can be answered, in some ways, by how long a visitor spends on any given page. If your content is a three-minute read, for instance, and people are only spending an average of one minute on that particular page, they are not reading your material completely. This means your message is not completely reaching the readers.
There can be a number of reasons for this. Maybe your content is boring. Or you’re using jargon which the reader doesn’t understand.
On the positive side, if that page is shared many times on social media and people are reading it all the way through, it is a good piece of content that is fully delivering your message. If it is a conversion page and you are actually getting conversions, your message is working.
Refine Your Method
There are many marketing methods – like inbound marketing, link building, and social media, which are “free”. And paid ads like pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and boosted posts. How do you know if these are working?
Your website traffic data tells you where your users are coming from, whether they are referred through social media, found you through Google, and how they discovered your website and your content. What this means is that, if you are putting a lot of effort into one method of marketing or another. And it is not yielding the kind traffic you need, then it’s time to change it up. On the flip side, you can see where traffic is coming from and identify areas where more efforts might pay off in a bigger way.
Redefine Your Targets
When you first started your website, you probably had a target market in mind or a persona you figured out was your ideal customer or reader. Well, if the people visiting your site do not match that persona, then something is going on. This may mean that you were wrong about your target audience.
As a result, if you change targets and aim for those who are visiting your site. And those who are interacting with you on social media, you may actually get more organic traffic, more conversions, and more sales. However, this may not always be the case. And there may be something else going on.
Revise Your Message
Maybe you have inadvertently stumbled on an audience of new targets and that’s great, but your original target audience will still be the ideal target. This means instead of adjusting your aim, you need to revise your message instead. This does not mean you will abandon the audience you have accidentally uncovered. But that you will go back to targeting your ideal customer.
This might be difficult to manage, and it will take some work to determine the balance between your message and your audience. And to figure out how they interact. Don’t be afraid to experiment with some new content and try to target both audiences if you can.
Sell Advertising Space
Getting a lot of web traffic? Have a significant amount of viewership? There are brands who would like to get in front of those readers in a number of ways. One way to make some money with your website is by selling advertising space. You can do this in several ways.
- Native Ads: The more traffic you have, the more likely people are to click on native ads like Google AdWords and Amazon ads. You can make some good money per click from these ads.
- Sponsored Posts: You can sell space for sponsored posts, essentially long-form ad copies posted on your blog.
- Visual Ads: Sell space for banners and other visual ads on your website for individual posts and in margins.
- SEO Posts: As your site builds authority, SEO agencies and other brands will reach out to place posts on your site and will pay you for that space. You get good content and some money on the side.
A good use of your web traffic data is to prove to these advertisers that their message will reach a wide and diverse audience.
Calculate ROI
Are you reaching your targets? Was that paid ad campaign worth it? The answer lies in your website traffic data, and how many visitors came from a particular source. How many viewers took the action you asked for on the landing page? This is how you calculate your ROI. This allows you to put more effort into the activities that pay off the most. Drop the ones which are ineffective.
Conclusion
Your website traffic data can be very useful. But if you don’t make the best of it, it can simply be more numbers for you to look at. Use these seven methods to get started on making the data you are already gathering much more valuable.
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How embedded analytics can multiply revenue of your software business
Software vendors that want to grow to need more revenue, and profitable revenue at that. With many enterprises already driven by software applications, app vendors can look for more income by providing extensions of their software to add value that customers appreciate. Embedded analytics and embedded business intelligence (embedded BI) can be great ways of enhancing application functionality and value, easily, effectively, and quickly.
Bringing Applications and Analytics Together
The opportunities for bringing in analytics are wide-ranging. They apply to horizontal software applications, like customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning. They also work for applications for verticals, like retailer stock control, real estate rental, and even monitoring and controlling entire production lines and power grids. This is because besides getting their business done with these apps, customers also want to know more. They want to know how efficiently they are working, where they could be leveraging resources for greater effect, or what they should be preparing for down the line.
Analytics add value by enabling customers to answer these questions and optimize their use of their software. Analytics can pinpoint trends, predict demand and sales, and reveal correlations of interest between different factors. The next question is, how should the apps and the analytics come together? Many businesses get stuck at this point, because they see only the hassle of buying a separate system for the analytics. Yet there is a much simpler solution for both customers and app vendors – Embed the analytics directly in the software application.
Added Value from Embedded BI and Analytics
Correctly embedded analytics and BI make it a snap for busy end users to get actionable insights from their apps and the data that those apps use. As the users use the system, all they need to do to get immediate business intelligence via the embedded BI is to mouse over to a menu item on the same screen. There, they click and access the BI and analytics of their choice. The customer’s IT department is happy too. Analytics and BI already embedded in a vendor’s product means the IT department is spared the time, effort, and risk of integrating a whole new IT system. For app vendors, as we’ll see below, there are then essentially three ways to multiply revenue streams.
Sell More of Existing Solutions to Your Existing Customers
Many software sales models are shifting from one-time licenses to monthly subscriptions. In the cloud, for example, customers can sign up rapidly to start using a SaaS solution. The problem is that they can just as rapidly cancel and go elsewhere. The challenge is to keep customer satisfaction high enough for them to be happy to keep paying the monthly fees.
Adding embedded analytics can help. It can give your customers new perspectives on the data collected by the app. Embedded BI can let users easily clean up, analyze, visualize, and act on that data. The increased customer satisfaction then boosts customer lifetime value (CLV), a crucial metric for you as an app vendor, as well as reducing churn. That means less need for the expense of marketing and advertising to attract new customers to replace the ones who left. And as the saying goes, a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Sell New Products and Services to Existing Customers
You can also offer embedded analytics as a paying option. The added value perceived by your customers can amply justify a new line item on the monthly bill. Just think of the different advantages you bring them. They make more money by doing better business by improving their understanding of their own customers’ needs, preferences, and patterns in buying and consuming. They save money by avoiding the purchase of a totally new BI or analytics system or service. They save time by not having to constantly leave one application and fire up a second one, carting their data along with them as they go. In addition, a second app for the analytics could have a completely different interface, meaning extra training time and costs. On the other hand, the better you make the user experience for your embedded BI and analytics, the happier, more efficient, and more productive your customers will be. Frankly, when you look at it this way, you don’t just deserve extra income for what you offer your customers, you should get a medal!
Sell Products and Services to New Customers
‘Data is power’, say some. ‘Data is the new oil’, say others. Whatever your perspective, data and good use of that data is increasingly differentiating industry leaders from the also-rans. That means that tools like data analytics are becoming standard items in the functionality shopping list used by enterprises when they look for new software solutions.
Embedding analytics and BI in your software application means prospective customers can already tick that box. Better still, if you offer the right self-service possibilities, customers can broaden their use of the embedded analytics to ask all sorts of questions about their data without needing technical support. Your software application will appeal to a wider cross-section of enterprises and organizations, because its embedded BI and analytics will have the flexibility to meet any ad hoc questions and challenges that customers throw at it.
Routes to Embedding
The only question left is how to do the embedding. There are two ways to go. One is in-house development. This requires extra resources and longer lead times/time to market, while increasing risk. The second is to use components from a vendor specialized in analytics and business intelligence. Look for technology for embedding that offers ease of use, the simplicity of integration, high performance and reliability, and solid support. Using components ready to embed today can accelerate all the additional revenue streams above.
Whichever way you choose to deploy embedded BI and embedded analytics in your app, now is the time to do it. Extra revenue and profit are there to be won, customer loyalty can increase significantly, and new business may be just around the corner.
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