The front page of The Economist recently warned of a “Data Deluge”. The data available to decision makers is multiplying exponentially every year; but how to harness its power in an efficient way? Enter the world of data analytics.

What is data analytics?

At McGrathNicol it is the blend of technology tools with programming, financial and analytical skills, combined with the rigour of forensic methodologies to help you find a robust solution to a complex problem.

When might it help you?

+         your problem requires a complex analysis with many permutations and combinations of variables;

+         there is a benefit in analysing the entire population of data rather than just a sample.

+         your problem requires the combination of data from different sources or systems that currently don’t ‘speak’ to each other;

+         you have tasks or processes that currently reside in a multitude of Excel spreadsheets;

+         you have a large volume of hard copy or ‘messy’ data that needs to be structured for analysis; and

+         your analysis requires a repetitive or time-consuming task to be performed manually.

Our Data Analytics team is experienced in ‘making sense’ of the data to provide you with valuable insights. Examples of our recent engagements include:

+         recalculating employee entitlements over a large number of employees and periods;

+         analysing the impact of an alternative provisioning methodology over several prior periods;

+         matching employee and vendor files to look for unusual relationships or risks; and

+         transforming a ‘messy’ data set from scanned documents into a ‘clean’ database for analysis.