Businesses have rapidly started to adopt, deploy and optimize retail customer intelligence solutions in the past year, while there are still plenty of opportunities for those who have been a bit slower to the punch to get rolling on the relevant projects. However, companies that have not even started to consider the merits of implementing big data and other types of advanced analytics solutions are likely to find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the coming years if they continue to balk on these investments. 

Intelligence tends to yield success in the competitive and saturated markets of the modern era, and failure to use the full range of technologies and tools to become a bit smarter represents a step in the wrong direction. Retailers are experiencing massive increases in data generation, collection and analysis, so leveraging the most effective and advanced intelligence solutions should be a high priority going into 2015. 

Case in point
Alexander Linden, research director of prestigious firm Gartner, recently participated in a question-and-answer that was then published on the company's website to give those heading to its analytics conference this winter some perspective on what items will be on the agenda. In the piece, the expert urged the need for more agile and effective strategies that work to the advantage of the company through the use of advanced analytics technology. 

When asked why chief information officers and other leaders should begin to take analytics more seriously, Linden had the following to say:

"The overall amount of data and analytics is growing in every industry," he affirmed. "CIOs need data science to extract nontrivial information. For example, it's mission-critical to determine how to acquire new customers, do more cross-selling and predict demand and failures. Normal business intelligence and descriptive analytics**, and even traditional software engineering, can't handle those situations. Advanced analytics can surpass human capability in coping with significant volumes of data, and dealing with highly complex digital business settings. Digital businesses have to adopt data science methods in more use cases, by driving the availability of sensor data, expanding bandwidth and reducing storage costs."

Furthermore, the research director noted that companies will need to ensure that they have the right types of skills and talent in-house to handle the data science-related tasks associated with advanced analytics, and that seeking out these professionals should be a priority given the impending shortage various firms have predicted. 

Push it to the limit
Retailers are in a unique position to get more out of intelligence solutions than businesses in a wealth of other industries, notably because this sector has been one of the quickest to digitize its workflows and information management. By leveraging advanced analytics solutions, retail customer intelligence can be substantially improved and prepared to further the financial and operational improvements of the company down the road. 

In short, advanced analytics will become more critical, and companies that recognize this sooner rather than later might be able to grab a competitive advantage out of the deal.