Decision-driven analytics: how businesses can turn data into action

Today’s fast-paced digital environment means we have access to increasing amounts of financial and business data. But how can busy executives tap into this data to produce meaningful reports for their investors, shareholders and boards? And how can we use data to make better business decisions?

With the rise of AI and machine learning, traditional management reporting methods are no longer sufficient to make business-critical decisions – especially given the complex requirements of regulatory compliance and financial reporting. NTT DATA’s Decision Architecture process is built to give you a competitive advantage, ensuring that you can zero in on the analytics needed to support your decisions, then leveraging agile development methods to identify appropriate actions within the constraints of tight deadlines.

Bringing data into focus and generating insights

Here at NTT DATA, our business analytics and visualisation experts specialise in making your data both more visual and more valuable. Instead of grappling with time-consuming, cumbersome spreadsheets, you can instantly access purpose-built dashboards and graphical, on-demand reports, saving you time and effort in making crucial business decisions.

Decision-driven analytics, the basis of our proprietary Decision Architecture framework, takes business analytics to the next level. We help you unlock the potential of your data, whether it’s external data about prospects, markets and companies, or your own internal data about customers, vendors and profits. You’ll be able to turn data into action, and action into measurable results.

The Decision Architecture methodology: empowering decision-making

However, our data visualisation tools are only the start. Decision Architecture enables you to go beyond reporting on what’s already happened to predicting what will happen – and making recommendations for what to do about it.

Moving up the analytics maturity curve, we can see that analytics need to be both visual and actionable to help you make decisions which solve real business problems, optimise the way your business operates and identify new opportunities to drive value.

Inside the decision analysis process

NTT DATA’s holistic approach recognises that all companies are unique and that requirements vary considerably from one company to another. Combining deep industry expertise with cutting-edge technology, we design customised solutions which will ensure more informed decision-making, increased security and frictionless customer experiences.

Our process walks your team through an analysis of your business, using a four-part analytical cycle and a series of decision analysis tools to connect your business problems to the actions needed to solve them. The Decision Architecture methodology leverages the analytical cycle to enable managers to make data-driven decisions.

Firstly, a targeted analytical exercise identifies the following:

• The actions you can take to create value for the business
• The questions you need to answer to decide which actions to take
• The metrics needed to answer these questions
• The data needed to construct the metrics

Using a series of tools, we drill down in detail to scope out the analytics which will inform your decision-making. The process enables you to pinpoint the appropriate analytics to support your decisions: these can range from simple metrics such as ROI to propensity or churn models. Decision Architecture then uses agile development methods, incorporating both data science and decision theory, to deliver actionable insights and help you structure the decision process to arrive at appropriate choices.

How can Decision Architecture help you?

Traditional management reporting simply tells you what has happened, providing a snapshot of your business at a particular point in time – but you still have to interpret that data and then decide what action to take. It’s a time-consuming process. In contrast, Decision Architecture helps you understand what happened and why, as well as what you can do to improve future results.

Decision Architecture also helps you avoid common project risks, simplifying the process from data to actionable insights. It gives you a direct path from development to results, without numerous iterations – so it’s better for your team and your budget. You’ll be able to make decisions in real time, using a single database that’s harmonised across the organisation, on important metrics. Decision Architecture will inform such critical matters as growing your market share, developing or discontinuing activities, optimising your product portfolio, streamlining the customer lifecycle and maximising ROI.

Here are just two examples of companies which have benefited from this methodology:

•  A leader in the beverage industry identified $10 million in new opportunities, gained meaningful insights in four key business areas, and also cut its business analysis process from several days to a fifteen-minute strategic exercise.
• A consumer packaged goods supplier increased its market share by 50 basis points and experienced 30% business growth, as well as optimising its inventory through better decision-making.

Download the e-book now to find out more about NTT DATA’s innovative Design Architecture methodology.