The advancing science and technology of data collection and analysis have changed our world. Even now, it continues to evolve and accelerate the way we do things. It’s left virtually no industry untouched, from the fresh produce sector through entertainment and sporting events. Professionals and non-specialists alike benefit from data and its related software every day but know relatively little about it.
For one, it’s a crucial part of the increasingly digital world that we now live in. There is no escaping the vital role that data and its processing software and virtual platforms will continue to play in our society.
Because of this, Consentio is leading the charge in taking data and turning it into meaningful metrics used for e-commerce, connections, and more producers, wholesalers, and supermarkets in the produce industry.
To put that into some perspectives, let’s discuss the value of data through a lens we are all familiar with: sports. Virtually every type of sport, such as mixed martial arts (MMA) – specifically in the Ultimate Fighting Club circuit (UFC)- relies on data and interpretations to bring value to fans, coaches, players, and investors.
Simply put, data analysis is the entire process of evaluating, cleaning, interpreting, and visualizing statistical information to be applied in a meaningful way and provide more insights into certain situations. This isn’t just about estimating the future; it can also tell a lot about the past and present.
For example, every major sport now has dedicated analytic departments and customized software to learn more about individual players, scout new talent, track performance, and much more. Even fans now use this information to estimate how they might expect their favorite team or player to perform in an upcoming season.
Being a big sport for gambling, MMA is especially keen on providing detailed data, examined and crunched by professional mathematicians, to evaluate the odds a particular fighter has of winning.
One of the challenges is that, like in the fresh produce industry, there are a lot of intricacies when it comes to evaluating each individual – especially when looking across the whole scope of MMA sports to determine the “best of all time.”
Single out anyone superior MMA fighter would be virtually impossible due to distinctions such as weight class, regulations, and other personal and sporting factors. However, data scientists in a Bayesian study could account for these discrepancies and evaluate a complete skill set of fighters based on their fight outcomes.
Similarly, Consentio can also help you “win” in the fresh produce marketplace by helping you connect your business more directly through the power of real-time analytics that cover a variety of different factors.
Because every customer is different, the platform is designed to create individualized price lists and groups to ensure everyone has access to the latest relevant information.
This is just one way that data analytics can be put to work.
But why so much emphasis on the analysis side of things? That's because all the data, even if you have a team to go through all the painstaking work of collecting even the most minute details, in the world means nothing if it can't be gathered, interpreted, and applied in a meaningful way.
For example, a fighter might have several datasets about how often a particular strike lands or misses, their stamina, stance, strength, and so forth taken from a specific match. But to be helpful, that information needs to be run through a model to understand which factors matter the most in the result against an opponent.
An article for Analytics India Magazine explains how, based on evolving data analysis, MMA has changed how this type of data is organized, collected, and utilized.
Previously a fighter’s strikes were divided into three different attacks. However, after analyzing them, the MMA world concluded that one type of strike doesn’t inflict enough injure or finish off bouts. So that implemented a fourth strike for “significant attacks” that could end a match with the proper placement.
“These minor details in the fights opened the gateway to a new world of data analysis due to which the actions of fighters in the ring have transformed,” stated the article. “These analysis helps a fighter to understand the steps taken by the opponent and react to them with an unorthodox trick.”
Having access to professionally curated and analyzed data has extreme value to any business, sports, or agriculture.
In an interview with Tech in Sports, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Brian Stann discussed the importance of using data analysis in the sport.
“There’s not enough use of data, and very few coaches take the time to view the data that is there to break down opportunities for their fighter,” he said. “We are behind in the use of data and I believe that gap can be made up by entrepreneurs as the sport grows. You need entrepreneurs that are at this conference to bring in solutions to help coaches training fighters to perform better.”
Like Stann’s line of thinking, Consentio recognizes the truth in the phrase, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Wholesalers can benefit from their platform by putting real-time information into performance dashboards and analytics. That way, the whole teams’ productivity is seen in the most realistic light with tailored insights into each salesperson’s performance for informed decision making.
Visualizing data is one of the essential elements of any analysis. However, based on numbers alone, data can be very abstract and challenging for most people to grasp or utilize without some visual frame of reference.
UFC fights are highly unpredictable by nature. Comparing the history and style of two individuals in a match would be virtually impossible without somehow illustrating it in a visually appealing way.
Data analysts can take some basic concepts and find what factors contribute to them and put them into a visual frame of reference. This could be factors like age, height, and weight, common threads of winners, or comparing fighters’ techniques. This synchronization of a complete compare-and-contrast format is essential for decision-making. The same information helps coaches, fighters, gamblers, and even casual viewers form data-based opinions and make decisions.
Similarly, Consetio’s system can help different industry segments with customized and synchronized data. By connecting with a customer’s current enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Financial Accounting Systems, Consentio can automatically synchronize the critical information of their IT systems and the platform for things like orders, stocks, price groups, etc.
Because the functionality is real-time, anything processed in Consentio can be updated within seconds. The dashboards also hold all historical data and share it so that all management, buying teams, and stakeholders can easily access the information.
This also leads to a secondary effect – enhanced efficiency. For example, Consentio allows fresh produce wholesalers to take their catalogs to the digital space. In conjunction with the ERP/financial accounting integration, that has allowed wholesalers to increase their sales staff efficiency by 60%.
This type of data collection, analysis, permitted and accessibility, similar to what is seen in UFC, is the future of the fresh produce industry. Consentio is proud to be a forerunner of that movement.
Read it or stream it fresh produce industry insights every week.