INTRODUCTION TO DATA ANALYTICS

Data analytics plays a critical role in today’s technology landscape by enabling organizations to
harness vast amounts of data from various digital sources. It supports real-time decision-
making, improves system performance, strengthens cybersecurity measures, and drives
innovations such as predictive analytics, automation, and AI applications. In industries like
finance, healthcare, e-commerce, and manufacturing, it helps optimize operations, enhance
customer experiences, and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly data-driven world.

Data - refers to factual information—such as measurements, statistics, numbers, characters, or

images—used as a foundation for reasoning, discussion, or decision-making. In its raw or
unorganized form, data holds little meaning until it is interpreted, transforming into information
that can enhance knowledge. It can represent facts, figures, characters, symbols, or any set of
qualitative or quantitative variables, from which patterns can be identified to support informed
decisions.

Information - data that has been summarized, analyzed, and contextualized so that it is
meaningful and useful.

Figure 1: Data vs. Information

Source: The ECM Consultant. (2025). Illustration comparing data and information [Image]. The ECM Consultant.

Analytics - the process of examining data using statistical and mathematical tools to extract
insights, make predictions, and guide actions.
It’s not just about collecting data — it’s about interpreting it to answer questions or solve
problems.

DATA ANALYTICS
Data is an unorganized collection of data that are critical for businesses. Businesses now collect
and analyze data to learn from previous mistakes and make better decisions in the future,
creating a high need for data analysts.
Data analytics enables firms to better understand customer behavior, follow market trends, and
increase efficiency. Companies can get insights, move fast, and access critical information by
leveraging tools such as business intelligence, data management systems, and cloud services.
As big data and data warehouses become more prevalent, so are employment prospects in
analytics, as businesses adopt new analytical languages and tools to promote innovation.
Why is data analytics important?

Figure 2: Five reasons why data analytics is important

Source: Data Masters Club. (2020). Image illustrating data analysis techniques [Image]. Data Masters Club.

Additional Reasons
1. Transforms raw data into actionable insights for smarter, data-driven decision-making.
2. Helps businesses optimize operations, reduce costs, and increase efficiency by identifying
trends and inefficiencies.
3. Supports product development based on customer needs, market requirements, and future
trends.
4. Provides a competitive edge by anticipating market shifts, fostering innovation, and
managing risks.
5. Guides hiring skilled data analysts to strengthen analytics teams.
6. Improves marketing campaigns, making them more targeted, cost-effective, and engaging.
7. Identifies growth opportunities, eliminates irrelevant data, and highlights areas for
improvement.
8. Use tools and techniques to remove errors, refine strategies, and achieve business goals.
9. Enhances customer experience by understanding behavior and tailoring solutions.
10. Drives sustainable growth and long-term success in a data-centric world.

DATA ANALYTICS LIFECYCLE

What is Data Analytics Life Cycle

 The data analytics lifecycle is a structured process that focuses on business objectives. It
improves understanding of data and makes analytics more effective.
 The lifecycle is designed for Big Data and data science projects and uses an iterative, step-
by-step approach to data collection, processing, analysis, and reuse.

Importance of Data Analytics Life Cycle

1. The Data Analytics Lifecycle outlines a strategic framework detailing how data is created,
gathered, processed, and examined to drive business success.
2. It provides an organized approach to handling data, transforming raw inputs into actionable
insights that support both organizational objectives and specific project aims.
3. This lifecycle offers clear guidance and techniques for extracting meaningful information
from data, ensuring efforts align with achieving business targets.
4. Data experts navigate this lifecycle as a continuous loop, allowing them to move forward or
revisit earlier stages as needed.
5. Insights gained at any point empower professionals to decide whether to continue with the
current analysis or restart the process entirely.
6. Data Analytics Lifecycle serves as a vital roadmap, steering data practitioners toward
informed decision-making and goal fulfillment.
Examples of problems that can be solved using data analytics initiatives.

Case example 1
An organization would like to determine the reasons for the decline in sales of a product. This is a
problem that warrants analysis of historical data.

Case example 2
An FMCG company is trying to determine the expected revenue from a product line that it would like to
offer nationwide. This will help them make a decision.

PHASES OF THE DATA ANALYTICS LIFECYCLE

The results of the previous phase influence each phase of the data analytics lifecycle. As a
result, it is normally best to complete each stage in the prescribed order so that data teams can
determine whether to move on to the next phase, retry the phase, or scrap the entire process.
By enforcing these phases, the analytics lifecycle helps teams navigate what could otherwise be
a confusing and directionless process with uncertain outcomes.

Figure 3: Phases in Data Analytics

Note: Data analytics can have six or seven steps, depending on the framework. A 6-step model
includes "Ask, Prepare, Process, Analyze, Share, and Act," while a 7-step model may add
"Deployment" or split stages like "Data Preparation." The steps vary across organizations.

PHASE 1: DEFINE THE PROBLEM

“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five
minutes thinking about solutions.” ~ Albert Einstein

This quote from Albert Einstein highlights the importance of understanding the right problem to
solve. Why such a big deal about the right problem?
The client is living with the problem, so they should be able to state that clearly. But that is far
from the truth in many cases.

When you go to the doctor with a problem, you also describe what is wrong with you. For
example, you are feeling chest pain. Is this the problem? If you observe something, the doctor
will ask you questions to further investigate it and may order testing. Why is this so?

Your chest pain is the symptom and not the real problem. The doctor tries to understand the
reasons which could be acidity, heart problem, or something else. Unless the real problem is
treated, your problem will not be solved.

Consider yourself as the client and the Doctor as the data analyst.

The first step is to ask questions and understand the root cause. You may need to use 5
whys or root cause analysis techniques for this.

Once the problem is identified, you need to identify the data needed to solve the problem.

Another example, in case example 2, you need to see the historical sales data and
demographics data to predict the demand for the product across the country.

PHASE 2: DATA COLLECTION

The next phase is to collect data for the initiative. The data can be received from one or more
databases. Data can also be gathered through market research, interviews, and the analysis of
research reports.
It is critical that we transfer the data to a single database for the subsequent phases.

In case example 2, the sales data and the demographics data will come from different sources.
The sourced data will be put in a separate database for ease of use and other considerations.

PHASE 3: DATA CLEANING

The next step is to make the data suitable for analysis. Data cleaning is an important phase and
includes:
 Correcting the errors in data,
 Removing duplicates
 Removing inconsistencies
 Correcting wrongly formatted data
 Removing outliers
The analysis cannot produce correct results without clean data.

See the table below for example. The date format in Row 2 is incorrect. This needs to be
corrected.
Also, look at row number 3 and 4, this is a case of duplicate data. Without correcting these
issues with data, it will not be wise to move to the next step.

PHASE 4: DATA ANALYSIS

The next step is analyzing data, which is collected and cleaned. Analysis techniques are used
based on the problem and the data. We may use mathematical, statistical, or machine learning
techniques to discover patterns, relationships, trends, or predictions. Software applications
platforms like R, Python, and Excel are used for data analysis.

PHASE 5: INTERPRETING AND VISUALIZING THE DATA

The next step is to discover – What does the data tell us? Visualizing the data plays an
important part. We can create pie charts, bar charts, scatter charts, or any other form of
visualization charts to discover patterns or trends.

The most common data visualization techniques are:

 Pie and stacked bar charts

 Line charts and Area charts
 Histograms
 Scatter plots
 Heat Maps
 Tree maps

Example
In an agile project, the team is managing the status of work in a tabular format:
 The data table shows the progress
for each day. For example, on 4th
April 2024, the remaining work was
200 units. Comparing it with the total
work to be done indicates that the
team was doing better than
expected.

But if we present the same data using line charts, the trend or rate of work for the team
becomes easy to understand and visualize, as shown below:

Data Analysts can use a data visualization tool to create these visual diagrams. The top tools
are:

 Power BI
 Tableau
 Qlik
 Excel
PHASE 6: DATA COMMUNICATION

Communicating the insights to the stakeholders is extremely important. Stakeholders could be

non-technical or may not be able to understand the technical jargon or terms at all. Presenting
the data in such a form that all the stakeholders can make sense of it, is important.

Data storytelling is the process of transforming data insights into a relatable and understandable
story so that it can be presented to the stakeholders.

How to tell a story with data? There are 3 elements of data storytelling:
1. Build your narrative – Decide the story you want to share with the stakeholders. Use
your data to back up your narrative.
2. Use visual diagrams – Use the right visuals that enhance and support your story. Unless
your storyline, data, and visuals don’t align, your story will not make an impact.
3. Build the story for impact – The final element is to build the story. The context, the
problem, the solution, and the benefit told in the right sequence and right focus will help
you achieve what you would like to.

PHASE 7: MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPROVEMENT

The final step is to evaluate the solution's effectiveness. Data is collected to compare the actual
and projected outcomes. If the actual results are worse than expected, a root cause analysis is
performed to identify holes in the solution. This cycle will continue until all expectations are
realized.
The data analytics program can continue to provide value to its stakeholders. If the desired
result is obtained, the data analytics process may be completed at this point. Alternatively, it
may continue until the desired consequence is accomplished.