On Tuesday, Black Book released its latest insights white paper titled, “Data Analytics: Critical for Driving Today’s Automotive Decisions.” Officials highlighted the paper offers an in-depth look at the role data analytics are now playing for automotive professionals and how they can be used to make more profitable business decisions.

Ever since the recession, Black Book pointed out that used-vehicle prices increased and stabilized at levels not seen in years, resulting in low depreciation rates. And while depreciation is finally beginning to accelerate, analysts noticed the stabilization of used-vehicle prices has been impacted by the industry’s increased use of data analytics.

Black Book said automotive decision-makers are going beyond vehicle pricing information to better understand data specifics that touch details found in seasonality, as well as regional considerations. This closer look at the data is helping to make more insightful decisions on everything from remarketing and pricing, to incentives and inventory levels.

The new Black Book white paper is geared to help automotive professionals ascertain a better understanding of the role data analytics are playing in the broader automotive industry, specific types of analytics being utilized, as well as individual examples of how data analytics are already being used to make smarter decisions.

In the white paper, Black Book details how data analytics is having an impact on three areas of automotive today:

—Gas prices and compact car values

—The impact ride-sharing vehicles have on vehicle depreciation

—The role “channel stuffing” plays on vehicle retention

The white paper also goes into detail about various types of analytics employed today, such as prescriptive and predictive analytics, data mining, text analytics, business intelligence and data visualization.

“What’s impressive today about data analytics is that the technology behind data is allowing us to provide an immense amount of customization and proprietary interpretation around the data to meet the needs of specific organizational goals,” said Anil Goyal, senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics at Black Book.

“Combined with our ability to capture data in real-time, the analytics process is truly helping to fast-track intelligent decision-making environments in order to maximize profit potential and reduce losses,” Goyal continued.

Click here to download the white paper.

The white paper release arrived just days after Black Book rolled out its latest solution, Visual Analytics. Goyal explained the tool’s six main features in this report.