Analytics is not as new as most people think. It has existed in some form for as long as computers have been a business tool. But thanks to relatively recent advances in data collection, storage, and utilization, analytics is an asset like never before.
Understanding the true age of analytics is important because it helps to explain its evolution. This is a technology/technique that has had time to develop, improve, and innovate. Not surprisingly, the analytics of today is different than it was a decade ago or less.
Search analytics is the latest iteration, and it’s as significant as anything that has come before. Essentially, search analytics offers the power of advanced analytics combined with the interface of a search engine. Querying a database is as easy as typing in a question into a popular search engine (like Google). Search analytics makes data-driven decision making much easier and far more accessible for employees across an organization.
Historically, the complexity of data management and analytics has been a major stumbling block. Companies had to recruit data scientists and invest is expensive technologies yet still struggled to optimize analytics. Search analytics cuts out the middle men and offers solutions that put the user first.
A recent survey of business leaders underscores why search analytics is rising in relevance. Over 90 percent of the respondent’s report that analytics has not had a truly transnational impact on their organization. The most common reasons why include bad data strategies, uncertain ROI predictions, and lingering compliance questions.
Search analytics minimizes or eliminates those issues by making insights accessible and affordable. To understand what kind of impact that has, consider some of the specific benefits of search-based analytics:
- Insights on Demand – With traditional analytics it can take hours, days, or even weeks to get insights. Search analytics makes those same insights available in seconds so that information is available whenever it’s important.
- Widespread Accessibility – Analytics is a tool everyone can use, but access is often limited to tech experts and upper-level executives. Since search analytics utilizes such a simple interface, any employee can begin applying intelligent information to their daily workflows.
- Ongoing Improvement – Just like other search technologies, search analytics learns from user behaviors and gets smarter over time. It becomes faster and easier for users to find insights, both the ones they’re looking for and the ones they don’t expect.
- Eliminate Complexity – The search bar is a tool that is familiar to everyone, which makes it the perfect vehicle to navigate analytics. Something that is overwhelming and baffling for most people becomes simple and streamlined.
Until you begin working with search-based analytics, it can be hard to appreciate what makes it different. The defining distinction is really that it puts the human back in analytics. For so long the focus has been on the titanic size and labyrinth-like complexity of big data. Search analytics simplifies all that and puts the focus back on the user’s needs and wants. Said differently, it’s the version of analytics that finally made this “cutting-edge, next-generation” technology accessible to all.
