Data analytics is an important part of any business workflow and company practices, or at least they should be. Regardless of your industry—manufacturing dolls, running a commercial farm, or providing a delivery service—all vendors and market leaders need analytics to understand where a company has been and is going. Especially as markets and supply chains become increasingly globalized and interconnected, trying to make any moves without relying on analytics insights is like sleepwalking. You may get from one point to the next, but you won’t know how you did it or how to replicate that move in the morning.

Most companies or vendors know by now that amassing large quantities of data is the way to go and that data preparation and analysis are invaluable tools for recognizing insights and trends. That said, not everyone knows how powerful data visualization can be when identifying important trends, parsing crucial details from distractions, and making better financial decisions faster. Who prefers to look at an image than a spreadsheet with lines of numbers? Who likes to look at an idea more than a spreadsheet with strings of numbers? The truth is that visualized data makes for a much clearer picture, literally. And that picture is much more easily transmitted to key people throughout the company, important investors, and potential customers.

For those interested in data visualization for business intelligence purposes, it’s good to know that some incredible software options can provide both descriptive and predictive analytics in real-time and vivid colors. In fact, according to the 2020 Gartner Data Science report, some awe-inspiring options can help vendors relay information, get to the root causes of their company’s problems, and keep a finger on the pulse of their business every day. If this sounds like something you may find useful at your company, you first need to know the difference between predictive and descriptive analytics. Once that’s ironed out, ensure you work with software that can provide both and synthesize the two in a useful way that maximizes your knowledge and streamlines everything about your business processes.

 analytics gives technology and business users a clear picture of where they’ve been. This form of analytics uses data mining and analysis of aggregated data to locate useful information for decision-makers. Nothing in this process directly advises about what to do in the future. However, the best future choices may be inferred by looking at the descriptions found in historical data and presented through descriptive analytics. Using this data analytics is extremely helpful but still leaves vendors and other business users taking a reactive approach. After all, you can’t be proactive when looking at the past.

predictive analytics also uses historical data. Still, by using statistics and advanced techniques

Data scientists can use historical data to make predictions that suggest what is likely to happen in a vendor’s or company’s future. Using predictive analytics to stay informed allows business users to take a proactive approach, head off pitfalls in the past, and prepare for both the good times and the bad before they happen. Neither descriptive nor predictive analytics alone can suffice for a vendor or market leader looking to be a true visionary in their field. Therefore, find a business intelligence solution that allows you to take the best of both worlds and drive your company to success.