Smart data usage is more and more important to make use of data-driven insights to improve customer experience.

New integration developments are bringing all this abundant information together can clear the picture of the customer.
However, many companies continue to struggle with analytics. Different analytical tools are used by different internal departments, often with no coordination. Various data -derived from email interactions, websites, mobile devices, stores or call centers – not being in perfect order. Analytics for different platforms, such as mobile, social and web, are used independently but often not integrated.
Companies often come across the problem, that every time they add in another mechanism for engaging with the customer, they're getting more data about that individual in yet another pool that isn't integrated with anything else. The above fragmentation makes it difficult to analyze the customer: check her path to purchase as one single journey, rather than a set of unconnected touch points. The troubling reality is that a company can spend untold resources on data collection without ever even using that information to grow its business.
Luckily, a new breed of analytics can make different platforms more available and allow marketers to streamline data analysis and take advantage of the insights available from these different data sources, while avoiding the fragmentation problem.

Organize your Data
A good marketer can take advantage of new developments to make valuable data work for the brand. Use an integrated platform and pull all the disparate data together to gain insights about the customer journey. Find customers at each step of their individual paths and identify the journeys that lead to the most conversions, or to abandoned shopping carts. We can now tell, which paths generate the most revenue, and which ones are the fastest to a purchase.

Focus on Conversion Rates
Research conducted by Econsultancy and IBM shows that elite companies enjoy conversion rates 104% higher - more than double - than those with less sophisticated approaches. This group also reports revenue growth 19% higher than the rest of the companies surveyed.
79% of these elite analytics companies say, they have an integrated platform approach to analytics - compared to only 7% among the slow starters. In addition, 81% of these elite performers say they are highly successfully sharing data between teams.

Using Analytics to Reach Goals
Whenever an integrated system is employed, a company can use analytics not only as a way to measure a campaign after the fact, but also to reach a specific objective. It allows the marketer to design a campaign based around the journey the customer is actually taking - not the journey the marketer wants them to take. With the right solution and open data system, tying data together can be automated, allowing marketers to focus on gaining customer insights and taking informed action.

Sources:
www.adage.com