If there’s one asset now readily available to companies that they must take full advantage of, it’s data. It’s not enough for companies to just make decisions at random, without getting support by accurate data. It’s important to have all the necessary insights backed up by data, and not just at random. That way, you’re certain that whatever decision you make for your business will be supported by sound research.
Given the company resources spent on company operations and marketing, going fully data-driven can save your business the possibility of costly mistakes. Competitiveness may also improve when you know how to target your customers in proven means, and in ways your competitors weren’t able to achieve successfully.
With that said, here’s how companies can go fully data-driven:
1. Start by understanding what it means to be data-driven
Do you fully understand what it means for your company to be data-driven? Where do these data come from? What do you do with this data? How can you analyze what the data’s trying to say?
Today, data is the root of all major decisions by companies that have made it well through economic difficulties, financial changes, and whatever other hard situations that may hit the business industry. Technologies that businesses use are centered on the data they’re able to extract to ensure that all their decisions are sound and accurate, if not close to 100% accuracy.
Being a data-driven company means you’re able to harness the right technology so as to make data readily available to your team, whenever it’s needed.
2. Embrace new technology
A part of making your company data-driven also entails investing in new technology. You may not be aware of it, but, perhaps, the technology you have now is ineffective for the growth you intend to achieve for your business. Or, it could be outdated. This means you’re spending on technology that’s not even providing value to your company anymore.
Among the many, think of those technologies driven by artificial intelligence to foster intelligent search capabilities for your company. This will allow your employees to find the more accurate information across all your data systems. Apart from AI, here are some of the best technologies your company should now make use of:
- Augmented analytics
- Data lakes
- Logical data warehouses
3. Set the right strategy
When you’re aiming for a data-driven operations of your company, it’s important to set the right strategy first. This means knowing what to do with the data you’re going to collect.
This may seem like a counter-intuitive thing to do, but it actually works. You can’t just start with collecting data without having any plan of action as to what you’re going to do with the data you’re collecting. Remember that it also takes time and resources to come up with the data that you need. If you don’t have a sound strategy in mind, then these will merely go to waste.
For instance, your strategy can be as simple as asking yourself what you want to achieve. Is your goal to keep your price streamlined, such that it’s high enough to earn a profit, but also low enough to stay competitive? How high is ‘high enough’? How low is ‘low enough’? Only your data collected can provide answers to those questions.
4. Compare what you have versus what you need
Before implementing total changes in your company, it also helps to compare what you have versus what you need. Not all of your data should all go to waste. Some of these can still be useful, for whatever intended purpose you may have for your business at present.
So, go through your old data again. By doing so, you may be able to come across data that are still useful for you at the moment. When you incorporate these old data with those new ones that you’ve mined, your pursuit of becoming a data-driven company becomes a lot more effective.
5. Change up your current data culture
Alongside the fourth tip above, once you’ve mapped out what you have versus what you need, you can now move on to the last step. This means creating that change in your company culture as to data.
Change is needed to grow, but for it to be effectively implemented, everyone must be on the same boat. So, right from the start of the changes, be sure that everyone in the team is aware of the new company practices for better data collection, usage, and decision-making.
In so doing, lesser mistakes can possibly be made. Most importantly, your employees are kept on the loop as to the new strategies in place that could be a lot more effective than the old ones your company may have gotten accustomed to using.
Conclusion
Transformations and changes in the way you run and operate your business may be difficult. But, there’s one area of the transformation where the potential value is clear: making data-driven decisions. As you can see, there are so many ways you can successfully implement a data-driven culture and practice in your company. And, most importantly, you don’t have to do all these at once. One step at a time is more than enough to create that striking impact. With consistency, soon you’ll enjoy all the positive changes your company will now enjoy through switching to a data-driven practice.