Is Data Science Consulting Right for Your Company?
Make the best decisions for your business by analyzing your data.
Imagine you’re driving a car in another country. Normally, you’re a very confident and competent driver, but suddenly, you pass an unusual sign with curious symbols and pictures on it. Now, you’re nervous. You have no idea what it means or what lies ahead of you on the road.
Running a business without using data science is a lot like driving on that foreign road: you may be able to see the strange signs, but you don’t know what they mean. In other words, you’re driving your business forward without knowing what’s ahead.
How can you find out if data science consulting is right for you? To help shine some light on data science, we put together this quick rundown to get you started.
What is data science?
Data science takes advanced analytics and goes a step further. With so much data available, it’s no longer a matter of having the right data points. It’s all about establishing new systems and techniques to create new ways to apply that data.
Data science brings a robust scientific approach to data analytics to push the envelope on what your data can do for you and your business. It’s about asking the right questions and finding the relationships between data points to capture real, insightful conclusions.
There’s a trick to it though.
The focus of data science is often on funding unseen patterns in data. Vast volumes of data get sorted through, and complicated programs and machine learning algorithms discover patterns indiscernible to the naked eye. In other words, data science does to data analytics what the microscope did for biology.
Ultimately, data science is the marriage of the scientific method, statistics, machine learning, and human intuition—all brought together to make informed decisions about the future based on past information.
Why is data science important?
Data science provides data-driven predictions so businesses can make highly impactful decisions confidently. The information—the sign—is there: it’s just a matter of having the right tools and knowledge to read it.
While traditional business intelligence may point to the data and show you what problem you’re having at the moment, data science seeks to identify the relationships between those data points to find the source of the problem.
Think about the adage, “Correlation does not imply causation.” Data science focuses on discovering that causation. For example, you may see specific seasonal sales trends, but with data science, you could learn the reasons behind them and better leverage those trends for your business.
Data science is crucial because it gives you the insights behind the data for you to make well-informed decisions about your business’s future.
What is data science consulting?
Data science consulting takes the complexity and expense of data science off your hands. Data science consulting handles all the work and lets you focus on your business.
There’s just too much data out there for one human mind to make heads or tails of, and trying to incorporate your own data science department into your business can be a considerable investment and headache. Hiring a data science consultant is a smart move for mid-sized companies looking to gain an edge over their competition.
Many data science consultants use customized end-to-end machine learning infrastructures to sift through all your information, requiring another layer of expertise. Leaving this to the experts allows you to focus on your business and the tough decisions that come from gaining those valuable data science insights.
Also, data science consultants will often set up systems and processes that allow for continuous improvement. They make the tweaks, so your insights continue to be accurate and informative.
Using data science in your business can be a difficult task to get started. Still, data science consultants can walk you through the process and give you the confidence to make the right decisions when the insights become available.
The basic steps that a consultant will walk you through look like this:
- Defining the Problem: The who, what, where, and why.
- Collecting Raw Data: Determining the data available and the data needed.
- Cleaning the Data: Quality control.
- Examining the Data: Sifting through the noise to find interesting patterns or irregularities.
- Analyzing the Data: An in-depth process that results in analytical gold.
- Visualizing the Data: Packaging the data and insights into an easily digestible format.
Which businesses can make the most out of data science consulting?
While most businesses can use data science consulting, we wanted to highlight a few industries where data science can elevate a business to the next level.
Finance
- Credit risk analysis.
- Credit card fraud prevention.
- Treasury or currency risk analysis.
- Targeted investment products.
Healthcare
- Medicare/Medicaid fraud prevention.
- Medical resource allocation.
- Readmission risk.
- Physician attrition improvement.
Retail
- Inventory management.
- Product trends.
- Increasing average order volume.
- Product layout in stores.
Is data science consulting right for my business?
Data science requires a large investment, and while the benefits will often pay dues, deciding to move forward is no small feat.
It’s important to note that not every business may be ready for data science consulting.
One sign that your business may not be ready for data science consulting is if you’re looking at it as a way to fix something. Data science works best at improving processes already in place, so if your business organization and processes aren’t the best they can be, you’re probably going to see reduced benefits.
If your business is a finely tuned machine and you’re looking to take things to the next level and get an edge over your competitors, then data science consulting might be your next big step.
If you’re interested in a more in-depth look at the ins and outs of data science, check out our article here.
RTS Labs is here to help with your digital transformation needs. Whether you want to avoid these issues or make the process easier, we can help move your enterprise into the digital age. If you need help creating or executing your digital transformation strategy, click HERE to get in touch with us today.