Research Company Gartner suggests that there will be 4.4 million big data jobs available in the next two years. Everything is moving towards data: big data, mobile datasets. Creating and implementing an analytics program requires four steps: 1) Defining your metrics and developing a plan 2) Collecting the data 3) Developing reporting features and capabilities 4) Ongoing analysis and implementation. Understanding each of these core components enables a company to make the right investments at the right time. Corporate data culture is a spectrum that can often be classified as follows: 1)No or limited data 2)Basic data 3)Deeper data that's soiled or controlled 4)Democratic data access. The idea is that your strategy should take the following points into account: 1) Data collection and reporting. 2) Analyzing the data, articulating the implications for business. Useful data tracking comes down to evaluating: 1) who is coming to your site, and what are those people doing once they get there. 2) What channels are driving buying customers? 3)Who is converting 4)What conversions are deepening relationships 5)What conversions are driving revenue 6)Who is buying multiple times 7)What's your lifetime customer value 8)What are your churn rates. Any solid analytics plan will take your business model into account and develop a set of metrics that maps to your unique needs and buying funnel. Read more at: