When running a business, there is a lot to keep track of.  From regulations to personnel management, to operation flows, to marketing, the list of areas that need to be constantly reviewed and optimized seems endless.  

To make matters more difficult, none of these elements are static, and neither are the tools to manage them.  Elements such as artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing (and security) have all evolved significantly in just the last few years.  It can be challenging to keep up, but it is absolutely necessary in order to drive that competitive advantage and thrive in your industry.  A lesser-discussed area of innovation, however, isn't directly related to a specific technology.  Rather, it's the vast amount of data we are able to collect, process, and convert to insight.  Where little data was available or at least accessible, now data brokering is a major market.  Businesses of all types can pick and choose large data sets that, when analyzed correctly, can provide the competitive insight they never thought possible.

For businesses both large and small, it's critical to look for opportunities that can offer the data, the insights, and the wisdom to make better decisions for your business.  Making more informed decisions can result in added revenue and reduced costs and can even provide a safer environment for your team.  

Interestingly, one of these critical data sources may not be an area businesses consider when looking to increase revenue, reduce cost, and improve safety.  Weather data is becoming a crucial commodity, and there are brokers with significant data history across a large number of variables.  Using this historical data can lead to important insights and better decision making for your business processes.  One of these providers, Tomorrow.io, even offers a historical weather API that can be integrated directly with business process inputs, leading to fast and informed decisions.

Let's dive into what insights this type of weather data can provide, key use cases, and how to maximize results for your business.

Weather:  The Cost of Not Knowing

Although we don't often consider detailed weather-related insights critical to our business (unless the weather has an obvious effect on it, such as managing a fleet of cargo ships), the data gleaned from historical sources can provide a varied range of insights.  This is much more than temperatures and rain too.  Various data sources can supply metrics such as air quality, fire data (showing smoke and fire danger in the vicinity), maritime-based information (e.g., safe routes, hazards), and even elements such as lightning, solar details, and pollen measurements.

Considering that not all businesses are strongly affected by rain, temperature, or wind, it can be easy to overlook the other data that is bundled up into "weather" data.  Not having insight into air quality can create misinformed decisions that could easily result in poor health over time.  Not optimizing for solar and wind could heavily underutilize expensive green energy investments.  Understanding a detailed analysis of heavy storm activity mapped out could prevent poor planning for outdoor tasks.  Even if the data identifies a trend at odds with historical data, such as the changes in weather (particularly air quality) during the pandemic, it can create additional insights and potential opportunities to make changes.  After all, the significantly higher air quality during lockdowns (even in notoriously bad air quality areas) provided insight as measured by the data's significant departure from steady trends.

Insight-Based Improvements Span Across The Business

While gaining insights is certainly important, taking action on those insights is the desired goal.  For example, if your business has any outdoor operations (or indoor operations exposed to unfiltered outdoor air), monitoring the various metrics related to air quality could be critical.  Poor air quality has been shown to have a direct negative effect on human health long term, but also immediately affects labor productivity.  Depending on how low the quality is, there could be immediate health effects to workers as well.  And humans are not the only ones at risk.  Machines that require air intake could incur damage on low air quality days.  Last but not least, employees being exposed to poor air quality create low morale, an increase in healthcare issues, and an increase in the business' healthcare costs.

Air quality is one of many metrics, however.  Analyzing historical weather data can provide insight into how the entire supply chain should be configured.  Reviewing shipping routes, material geographical sources, and seasonal supply spikes can all be better informed by a detailed weather assessment.

Finally, significant cost savings could potentially be achieved by aligning and optimizing utilities such as power consumption in accordance with not only business demand, but by key weather variables such as temperature, sun exposure, and wind levels.  If done correctly, the business can create demand high enough to use the generated power immediately, and can reduce power loads during times when the weather will prevent high power generation from solar panels, wind turbines, etc.  Various software can help to align the power needs, business goals, and weather data to ensure the solution will be fully optimized.

Final Thoughts

Though often overlooked, having rich insight into detailed weather trends offers a significant amount of support to business owners who can use this data to make better informed decisions.  Key elements performed in step with the weather can result in better health for workers, additional revenue, and reduced costs.