As the world becomes more and more smart and complex, data has become the key to compete and survive in the ever-changing environment. This means that the success of a company depends on how well it can leverage data; apply analytics to derive insights for informed decision-making. The organization which has data and analytics at its core will surely be invincible in the future. According to the International Institute for Analytics, by 2020, businesses using data will see US$430 billion in productivity benefits over competitors who are not using data.
Therefore data is becoming an important asset which could bring revolutionary changes, thus every business needs a robust data strategy. The data strategy should involve the data resources for them to be used, shared and moved efficiently. Data which is a byproduct of business processes will also become an input source for further business process and decision making. Hence a clear data strategy is vital to facilitate processing and managing these data in a repetitive manner.
According to Bernard Marr, it is wise for a business to start with data and analytics strategy instead of starting with data itself. Here are some suggestions for a strong data strategy:
- Right data for your needs – different data yields a different outcome. So, identify and define your need/want, then it is easy to find the relevant data in line with your goals.
- Sourcing and Gathering data – there are many ways to collect data, including purchasing from an external source and using internal data.
- Data turned into insights – as part of the robust data strategy, plan how to apply analytics to data to extract critical insights that can drive decision making to improve the business value.
- Technology infrastructure requirements – decide on the software and hardware to analyze the data
- Data competencies within the organization – develop data skills and competencies required by training in-house talent and outsourcing data analysts.
- Data governance – collecting and storing data involves legal and regulatory obligations. Therefore, the important factor of the data strategy is security, privacy and ownership.
We all know that information and data is power. Huge amounts of data are being created every day, which we call as big data. There are various analytical methods evolving to collect, store, process and analyze these big data. In order to avoid drowning in this big data, smart and robust data and analytics strategies are crucial to achieving business goals.
Read here to check whether your organization is truly data-driven.
