Predictive analytics: Thinking beyond the data

We use data to make better decisions about the present, but many of us don't consider how to use it to make better decisions about the future

Predictive analytics: Thinking beyond the data

The best businesses in the 21st Century are the businesses that are best at using their data to make sound business decisions. And with technology being as advanced and accessible as it is today, most mortgage organizations have moved in this direction. We're capturing data, storing it, and retrieving it when we need it for our everyday operations.

The problem is, however, that too many of us stop there. We use data to make better decisions about the present, but we don't consider how data can be used to make better decisions (or simply to have more clarity) about the future. That's where predictive analytics comes in. Rather than merely helping us with our business now, predictive analytics helps us build forecast models to understand where we are going to be later on down the road.

On a personal level, many of us have asked the question, "If you knew you were going to die in the next week, how would you spend the remaining time you have left?" Knowledge of the future is a powerful motivator. If we know something is going to happen at a certain time, it causes us to live differently. It's no different in the business world. While we can never be certain of the future, data can help us build models that give us strong evidence of the direction we're moving. Don't just use your data for your business today; use it for your business tomorrow. Get involved with predictive analytics.