We live in a digital world and we contribute approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data almost every day, and 90% of the digital insight of the whole world is created in the last 2 to 3 years alone.
If you know how to use digital data, then it helps you to increase profitability, business growth, and business efficiency. If you don’t know how to use the business intelligence process and you aren’t learning it, then you’re missing a great opportunity. It would turn out to be disastrous for your business because you aren’t taking advantage of opportunities.
The amount of digital data is available online, it is very difficult to analyze and draw conclusions from it. Unless you have the right business tool, that’s where the role of Ad hoc analysis and Ad hoc reporting system comes in. Today, we’ll discuss it in detail;
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What is Ad Hoc Analysis?
Ad hoc analysis is a specifically designed business intelligence process; it helps you to answer specific business questions by using the current data available. Since it uses the current data, therefore, the answer ad hoc analysis provides are time-constrained and single time use only.
Ad hoc analysis provides an answer to one specific question only at one time. For instance, the sale of your business is low in the last two quarters. If you use ad hoc analysis, then it would tell the reasons for slow growth and lower sales. The answer ad hoc analysis provides is based on the new and latest information.
Other business intelligence tools use different algorithms and analyze patterns to answer the questions, and they use the pre-defined information. But the operation of ad hoc analysis is different; it uses the number of data sources.
Ad hoc analysis provides you an option to present the information the way you like. It could in the form of a report, graph, or analytics.
What is Ad Hoc Reporting
The answer ad hoc analysis business intelligence process provides in the form of a report is the Ad hoc report. It’s for a single-time use only because it uses the latest information. However, the design of the ad hoc report is for the layman. You can study it without having experience in the standard analysis.
An ad hoc report is an important part of your brand, business, and organization. Its daily, weekly, monthly, and annual reports provide you a deep insight, which helps you to make a data-driven decision.
Ad hoc reporting follows the SQL (structured query language), and it takes for the IT department many days to complete it because it is for the non-tech personal who aren’t familiar with the technical and professional jargon. That’s the purpose of ad hoc reporting is to provide the single-use SQL report without any complications.
If the host of ad hoc reporting and ad hoc analysis presents the information in the form of visuals, then it improves the understanding of users and they would be to study and understand it without the assistance of IT professionals.
Uses Ad Hoc Analysis
Some of the important uses of Ad hoc analysis in the real world are as follows;
Sales
If a company/business has a large database of sales, then ad hoc analysis can be very useful to find out the sales report in a certain period. In big companies, where they have a large number of sales staff spread across the country. You can generate ad hoc reports for different regions that are under the control of different salespeople. That’s how you can check and monitor their performance.
Healthcare Industry
Ad hoc analysis has a vast application and uses in the healthcare industry. By using software like healthcare analytics, doctors can save lives and lower the mortality rate because it provides you fast and accurate results.
A doctor may not know how to create an HTML report or run a SQL query application. But he can generate an ad-hoc report quickly. A blood test report is a very good example of it.
Government
Government officials have a plethora of information. What they require is an analysis report and an insight, so that they could make an effective decision because it affects the lives of many. Thanks to the ad hoc analyses, governments across the world have the luxury of having public funds and they’re making better-informed product decisions.
Retail Industry
Ad hoc analysis is also very useful and effective in the retail industry. You can manage shoplifting, inventory loss, employees’ theft, and other incidents. The ad hoc report tells you the losses in certain areas when you start tracking it. Then you’d be able to save money.
Education System
Education is the basis of success for an economy and a country. The ad hoc report tells you the weak areas in the education process. Whether it’s the student engagement issue or the course, it helps you to engage with the students at a personal and deeper level. When students start performing better, then it’s productive for the nation.
Financial Industry
Financial industry deals with facts, figures, KPIs, reports, graphs, and data. That’s where the Ad hoc analysis can assist the financial industry and businesses to increase their return on investment and profit, by providing data metrics, finding trends, and developing patterns.
Benefits of Ad Hoc Analysis
Some of the benefits of ad hoc analysis are as follows;
Less Workload on IT Department
The customized format of the ad hoc report makes it easier for the non-tech personals to read and understand the reports, without any assistance from the technical staff. It lowers the workload from the IT department and they won’t have to explain it to the people. IT professionals can spend the same time on other projects.
Easy Application
The interface of the ad hoc analysis tool is very intuitive and user friendly. Users can easily find the answer to the questions that they are looking for. It allows them to make the right decision that improves the productivity of their businesses.
Flexible in the Changing Environment
Empowering users with information is one of the most important advantages of ad hoc analysis. It can help the users to make use of the information the way it serves users’ needs best. It helps businesses to find the answers and apply them in the ever-changing business environment, according to the needs and requirements of their businesses.
Access to the Data Sources
Ad report provides you access to the source of the data and answers the questions on the same platform. If the ad hoc software is good, then you can apply different kinds of filters to sift the information and to get better results. That’s how you can manage and access the data.
Types of Ad Hoc Reports and Data Sources
OLAP
OLAP (online analytical processing) is a specifically designed application that helps you access the data in the report. Some of its functions drop and drag and drop-down menu list that allows users to get an insight into their business.
Big Data
Big data is for big companies. Here you don’t access the company’s database. Instead, you use an external source, because you have to deal with a large volume of structured and unstructured data sources. It provides you an additional insight to improve the business processes and customer service.
Examples of Ad Hoc Analysis
Following are the two examples of Ah Hoc Analysis
Healthcare Industry
The readmission rate was higher at a hospital in Wisconsin. Ad analysis helps us to drill down the problem and segment problem. However, it was higher only in the cardiology department because of the short staff. While the other departments remained unchanged. When they reallocated the staff, the readmission rate dropped down.
Banking Industry
Ali works at a small bank and his job is comprised of looking after the loans, credit cards, and home equity. He has to deliver a report, but the data exists in different IT systems. If he does it manually, then it would take him weeks. However, by using the ad hoc self-service reporting tool, he can create the same report in a few minutes.
