The Basics of Data Analysis

Data analysis is the process of transforming data into information that can help you make better business decisions and operations. It begins with identifying the problem you want to address, obtaining the relevant information, and then analyzing it using various statistical techniques to identify underlying patterns or relationships. The result is often an increase in profitability or efficiency.

To begin the process, you must establish a goal. This could be as simple as a sales goal or as complicated as predicting the probability of customer churn. Then, you must determine what kind of data analysis will lead you there. Diagnostic data analysis is designed to determine the relationships between data points to explain the observations. Predictive modeling is the opposite. It, uses past results to predict outcomes.

The next step involves obtaining data. This could mean obtaining data from sources like CRM software, internal reports, and archives. Importing data from outside sources could be required, which entails processing data in different formats from different sources. Once you have the data you can begin to prepare it for analysis by cleaning and organizing it, then changing it as needed and then analyzing it using various statistical methods.

After the data has been analyzed after which you write a written report to summarize the findings in a way that is easy to understand for your readers. Based on the level of experience among your readers, this might require writing for non-experts or working with a statistics expert to translate technical terms page and processes into usable information.