Data is present everywhere. Recording these pieces of information is vital especially when trying to answer a question, testing a hypothesis, or proving a theory.Analyzing a set of data is also required when trying to answer an inquiry, and through this process, a set of data will be broken down into small pieces of information. It would provide additional information that could answer certain queries determined by the user, helping them in decision-making tasks. Many businesses have already applied this technique in analyzing their data, and it helped them a lot especially when these establishments are profiling data for their own use. Data analysis, according to some scientists, is a complex process that is actually divided into smaller steps, and completing each step provides a new portal to the next one. These steps can be completed with the aid of a computer software, or sometimes, it can also be addressed with the use of skills developed by the people who are skilled in performing data analyzing tasks.

The first step would be requiring data to be placed in a certain analytical procedure. Customers are one of the most common providers of data, and these groups of people are referred to as an experimental unit. The data that will be gathered during this first phase is either categorical or numerical, and those who will be participating in this stage might be required to fill-in several worksheets or tables where the information will be collected. In the business sense, data collection happens during short surveys on the company’s online portal, or through small paper, surveys handed out to customers. Big companies have a huge database of customer information, which are data collected from millions who are using their products. Another way to gather data is through advanced technologies, including street cameras and satellite images. These raw data will eventually be processed to produce a new type of information.

Once a substantial amount of data has been collected from various sources, it will be processed to obtain new information. The information produced from the data collected will eventually become a source of knowledge, which will further the cycle of gathering information. Data analysis will also take a huge role in organizing the data captured by different sources, organizing it and categorizing each data in a structured format. Some software programs used by companies would automatically categorize each data that they capture, putting them into tables that were automatically created to accommodate such information.

Data cleaning is also a vital part in processing the information that resulted from the gathered data. This is where the detection of errors would occur, scrapping data that have incomplete or unreliable sources, or those which has a duplicate. These errors could be corrected if data cleaning is applied correctly. This is highly important for the financial industry, as more error occurs in this sector compared to other business units. Because of the huge set of numerals present in the information processed under the financial industry, it is undeniably possible that errors might slip and these should be taken cared of immediately.