Demystifying the New Normal with Data & Analytics

Analytics has been a key enabler for businesses in the past few years. We have seen the entire world shift from process driven to data driven decision making. And now that we are standing at the brink of the new Normal amidst these unprecedented times, the usage of Data & Analytics would act as our guide to the Post-covid era.

As Businesses have started opening up after months of rigorous lockdown, the early trends show the increased use of Data & Insights in monitoring and planning the whole post covid situation.  From determining the markets to stress testing of business models to planning supplies, organizations are leveraging the Data in more and more ways.

While the adoption of data based decisions was expected to pick up, the pandemic has pushed it to another level. One significant trend that has emerged is the usage of Analytics by the Governments across the globe to monitor and manage the Covid-situation by collating data from hospitals and patients. Data science has enabled real-time monitoring of all the active cases in a particular country/area which helps the citizens to locate their nearest hotspots, On the other side it also helped the patients locate their nearest hospital/ medical centers where the testing/treatment of covid was available.

Government is using analytics to create heat maps for the spread of Covid in different areas to open the counties and cities. The same heat maps are being used by organizations worldwide to assess the situation of different markets and open up. Health care is using analytics to manage and maintain the supplies of masks, PPE kit and Ventilators while Retail sector is using analytics to categorize the products in essentials and non-essentials and are using forecast studios to forecast demand, inventory etc.

Going through the reopening journey of multiple businesses there are few factors which are predominantly important.

Business Continuity: The first and foremost goal of the businesses as they open would be to continue the BAU. Businesses need to be aware of the following implications:

• Operations strategy needs to be as agile as possible in the new normal which will require the real time data on covid spread
• Employee safety needs to be of utmost importance and hence they need safety measures to be installed in the office premise including usage of face mask, temperature measurement, maintaining the apt social distancing – where again the data and analytics will play a major role

Stress Testing: Stress testing would serve as the make or break for the organizations in the near future as the businesses need to keep the lights On during these difficult times.  This will require lot of data and insights to stress test the business models in various markets. Covid19 has been the black swan event and has put the sustainability of the organizations at risk. There are lot of Organizations which are undergoing the financial stress due to high leverage. Analytics models have been around for stress testing but the adoption remained a challenge. In the post covid world the adoption of these models is increasing by leaps and bounds.

• Resilience: As per the IMF projections the global economy will contract by 3% in 2020, a bigger downturn than in the 2008–2009 financial crisis. In such scenario, Organizations have to come up with new models to sustain the economy contraction. In the new normal manufacturers will not only focus on their supply chain but also on their supplier’s supply chain to assure robust supply. In the post covid world organizations will require lot of data crunching and will require forecast, prediction and simulations.

Review Offerings: With the New normal, organizations will have to be very agile with the offerings as most of them will be digitized. The feedback data will play a very vital role in getting the nerve of the consumer around them.

The approach of the organizations needs to be agile to respond to the change. Organizations need to get down to the SKUs level and focus on the demand and profitability. Product with high demand and high profitability would stand out in these times.

Review Markets: C-suite executives will require data to identify which markets are impacted the most and what is the level of impact in those areas. They would also like to know what the different scenario of new normal looks like. Rigorous stress testing would be required to be confident of the way the business will run. ML models could play a significant role in stress testing

Review Business Models: With the new Normal kicking in Organization need to review their business models. They can follow the following steps to assess their current models and develop the new one.

In each of these steps data and Insights would play a vital role. Whether it is about creating simulations or it is about looking at different opportunities or simulating the business models with those opportunities all of them will require data.