Business Intelligence vs Predictive Analytics vs Prescriptive Analytics

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world.

Business Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics…

The Big Data revolution’s got all kinds of scientific terms buzzing around today’s boardrooms at warp speed, smashing into each other on the path to becoming enterprise-wide solutions to business success. But what do they really mean? And more specifically, what do they really mean to marketers?

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world.

Business Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics…

The Big Data revolution’s got all kinds of scientific terms buzzing around today’s boardrooms at warp speed, smashing into each other on the path to becoming enterprise-wide solutions to business success. But what do they really mean? And more specifically, what do they really mean to marketers?

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan

Before we start breaking each one down, let’s first understand that they’re all centered around one core principle:

Knowledge is power.
And knowledge is gained through information.

That’s it. That’s the plan. The center of all of this. And it’s a core principle that mankind has known and used to its advantage since pretty much the dawn of time.

What’s different, is that now in the digital age, we have access to a truly extraordinary amount of highly detailed, specific information about our buyers, customers, prospects. As marketers, this means we can actively use behavioral data to precisely pinpoint what’s leading targets to buying decisions and conversion.

You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re all doing what we can.

Essentially, Business Intelligence, Predictive Analytics and Prescriptive Analytics are interconnected solutions “doing what they can” to help companies get the most out of this new intimate knowledge–potentially powering CMOs to build lead-ready prospect lists, engage highly targeted lead-ready prospects towards buying decisions, retain existing customers, and upsell existing customers.

Business Intelligence (BI)

Gartner defines Business Intelligence as, “An umbrella term that includes the applications, infrastructure and tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and optimize decisions and performance.”

Any organizational effort that’s gathering knowledge, examining it, and using it, is engaged in some level of BI. By nature, advertising and marketing have always used various degrees and sophistications of formal and informal BI efforts to propel sales. This knowledge baseline is shaped through descriptive analysis examining past data to extract useful customer/buyer/prospect information. Per the Gartner chart above, it’s an examination of, “What happened?”

Predictive Analytics

“Firms have spent many years building enterprise data warehouses (EDWs) and using business intelligence (BI) tools to report on the business. But predictive analytics is different – advanced statistical, data mining and machine learning algorithms dig deeper to find patterns that traditional BI tools may not reveal.”
— Mike Gualtieri, Forrester Research

Predictive analytics kicks BI up a notch, by using algorithms to find patterns and develop probabilities to predict similar future outcomes.

Per the Gartner chart above, this powers marketers to answer the questions, “Why did it happen?” and “What will happen?” And not in general terms–but in highly specific terms, derived through very specific buying behaviors.

This new, specific, information brings a wealth of value to better informing marketing strategies. As noted in a  recent Forbes article noted, according to TDWI Research, the top five reasons why companies want to use predictive analytics are to predict trends, understand customers, improve business performance, drive strategic decision-making, and predict behavior.

Predictive analytics is the core of how WealthEngine uses data to help companies and organizations identify and convert the most lead-ready audience. By using insights and analytics, WE can segment and target your highest potential customers and prospects.

And WealthEngine has shown our customers firsthand, that it works.

You tell me it’s the institution,
Well, you know,
You’d better free your mind instead…

Prescriptive Analytics

From descriptive and predictive analytics, was born prescriptive analytics, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. Prescriptive analytics uses the knowledge gained through predictive analytics to build actionable, predictive models capable of prescribing healthier more robust and successful marketing efforts.

Gartner describes prescriptive analytics as “the final frontier in big data, where companies can finally turn the unprecedented levels of data in the enterprise into powerful action.”

It’s where marketers can answer the question, “How can we make it happen?”.

As a marketer, using predictive analytics to develop and apply prescriptive analytics frees your mind to focus on achieving customer outcomes rather than figuring out their behavior.

Again, Knowledge is power.

The key to your revolution is gaining the right information capable of delivering the kind of knowledge that gives you power.

(That’s where WE can help.)

You know it’s gonna be
alright
alright
alright…