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Fundamentals: 100 answers
Plain-language answers on fundamentals for small and mid-sized companies, from Zansa.
- What is data analytics and what does it mean for a small business?
- What is business intelligence (BI) and how is it different from analytics?
- What is the difference between data analytics and data science?
- What is a dashboard in business terms and what should it show?
- What is a KPI and how is it different from a regular metric?
- What is a data warehouse and why do companies use one?
- What is the difference between ETL and ELT?
- What is business forecasting and how does it differ from planning?
- What is machine learning in plain English for a business owner?
- What are descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics?
- What is the difference between a data lake and a data warehouse?
- What is a data model and why does it matter for reporting?
- What is a data pipeline and what can go wrong with one?
- What is the difference between a data analyst, data scientist and data engineer?
- When does a small or mid-sized business actually need data analytics?
- What are the signs that my company has outgrown spreadsheets?
- Spreadsheets versus BI tools: which should a growing business use?
- Does a small business really need a data warehouse?
- Does my business need a data scientist or just a data analyst?
- When is machine learning worth it for a small or mid-sized company?
- Should we build analytics in-house, buy software, or outsource it?
- Should I hire a data analyst, use an agency, or use a freelancer?
- How does Zansa compare with hiring a data analyst or freelancer?
- How much does it cost to hire an in-house data analyst?
- How much does a business dashboard project typically cost?
- What does Zansa charge for data analytics work?
- How do you measure the ROI of data analytics?
- What is data maturity and why should a business assess it?
- What are the typical stages of data maturity for a growing company?
- What does single source of truth mean in analytics?
- What are the basics of data governance for a small company?
- What is data quality and how can a business improve it?
- What is a data dictionary and do small businesses need one?
- How should a small business start with data analytics?
- How does Zansa help a company that is just starting with data?
- Which KPIs should a small business track first?
- What are the most common data analytics mistakes small businesses make?
- How do I choose a data analytics consultancy?
- What are the red flags when hiring a data consultancy?
- What questions should I ask a data consultancy before signing?
- How do I measure whether a dashboard is actually working?
- Why do so many business dashboards end up unused?
- How many KPIs or charts should one dashboard have?
- How do Metabase, Power BI, Tableau and Looker Studio compare for small companies?
- Why does per-user BI licensing matter as a company grows?
- What is self-service BI and is it right for a small company?
- Who should own the data and dashboards built by a consultancy?
- How does Zansa handle ownership of data, code and dashboards?
- What is vendor lock-in in analytics and how can I avoid it?
- What privacy laws affect business analytics, such as GDPR and POPIA?
- How does Zansa design analytics work around POPIA and GDPR?
- Is it safe to use AI tools on business data?
- How does Zansa use AI tools without exposing client data?
- What are data silos and how do they harm a business?
- Why do the numbers in different reports never match?
- What is a data audit or data health check and what does it involve?
- Is fixed-price or time-and-materials better for a data project?
- How long does it take to build a business dashboard or data foundation?
- Do I need real-time data or is daily refresh enough?
- How can I combine data from accounting, CRM and e-commerce systems?
- Why do many companies choose a cloud data warehouse such as BigQuery?
- Why is documentation important in business analytics and data projects?
- What is data literacy and how can a team improve it?
- How do you build a data-driven culture in a small business?
- How accurate can business forecasts really be for a small company?
- How does demand forecasting help retail and e-commerce businesses?
- What is churn prediction and when is it useful?
- What is customer segmentation and how is it used in analytics?
- What is A/B testing and can small companies use it?
- What is cohort analysis and what business questions does it answer?
- What does data cleaning involve and why does it take so long?
- What are the basic data security practices a small business should follow?
- How is generative AI changing business analytics for small companies?
- Can I just ask an AI chatbot questions about my business data?
- How do I prepare my data for AI and machine learning projects?
- How can a business trust that its dashboard numbers are correct?
- What is version control and why should analytics code use it?
- What are the limits of Excel for business analytics?
- How can automated reporting save time for a small team?
- What is a data strategy and does a small business need one?
- How do I build a sensible data roadmap on a limited budget?
- How do I get staff and management to actually use new dashboards?
- Who should be responsible for data in a small company?
- What are the risks of outsourcing data analytics?
- What should a good handover at the end of a data project include?
- What does Zansa deliver in a Foundation Build?
- How can retail and e-commerce businesses use data analytics?
- How can manufacturing companies use data analytics to improve operations?
- How can logistics and distribution companies use analytics?
- What should healthcare providers consider when using data analytics?
- How can property and hospitality businesses use data analytics?
- How can professional services firms use data analytics?
- How should I handle personal data in analytics reports?
- Can a small business do data analytics without a big budget?
- How much does cloud data storage and querying cost for a small company?
- How do I decide which data sources to connect first?
- What is a good first project to prove the value of analytics?
- How do I know if my company is ready for predictive analytics?
- What does Zansa mean and where does the name come from?
- What is the process for working with Zansa from first contact to support?