Specialty Graphic Imaging Association Digital Printing & Imaging Association
	Executive Summary May 2007

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The Growing Value of Analytics

To make the best business decisions in a changing marketplace you need to understand as much as possible about the needs of your customers. However, getting good information about your customers can be difficult. It’s easy to make incorrect assumptions, or miss opportunities as customers look elsewhere for new solutions to their changing needs.

The people who are best at evaluating customers’ interests have 20/20 foresight, 20/20 hindsight and a memory like a steel trap. The rest of us need analytics.

We’re all looking ahead, concentrating on the next big thing, anticipating future developments. But even in a rapidly changing marketplace, where you’ve been can tell you a lot about where you’re going. Tuning in to your customers’ buying histories can provide great insight into their operations. Capture the right data, and you’ll be more aware of your customers’ needs, preferences and wants. This can also help you spot trends that should be exploited or perhaps even corrected.

As you create customer profiles, it’s beneficial to include data from different points in the sales process. Each step along the way — sales, order entry, production and delivery — presents the opportunity to learn something unique about a customer’s interests.

Analytics models are typically used to either segment the customer base or to predict behavior, and both tasks warrant attention. So carefully consider your options when determining the data points you want to include. Then expect to change any and all aspects as you constantly adapt to a changing marketplace.

Increasingly, in all business sectors, companies are finding that good analytics add speed and accuracy to the decision making process. Customer analytics will tell you a great deal about your company as well as your customers.

For an even more complete picture of your customer base and your marketplace, turn to SGIA Surveys & Statistics on SGIA.org. The information you collect by participating in SGIA surveys complements the data you gather in-house with unparalleled market and community data. SGIA will be bringing you more information on developing and managing analytics, but in the meantime, take a few moments to be part of this tremendous resource.