How to Become a Data-Driven Company

Businesses are increasingly turning towards data-driven models for an efficient work environment and to keep up with the technological changes.

Data literacy is the ability to understand and use data in context. Employees should know the sources and structure of the data they use and deploy the right analytical tools to garner correct information.

They must also be able to use this resulting information to enhance their business decision-making skills.

As a data-driven company, you can use data and make strategic decisions and actions. This allows you to acknowledge any market changes, have a competitive advantage, and serve your customers better.

Read ahead to understand how to have a data-driven business.

Identify your Business Goals

Before you turn your organization into a data-driven one, it is essential to understand your business's specific goals and identify what drives your business towards them.

Consider the following before you take any steps towards turning your business processes around:

• The opportunities you want to target.
• If these opportunities align with your business strategies.
• The problems you want to solve.
• The impact you'll create on your firm by solving these problems.
• The outcomes you want from these strategies.
• Your measure of success.

Once you have these figured out, check the data you have and see if it caters to all the above results you want and how you can achieve them. IT, leadership, and data science come together to decide on the strategies that perfectly suit your business needs.

Data is essential for the success of any organization, and your ability to understand its applications can impact your business significantly.

Check your Latest Data Strategy

It is crucial to check your current data strategy's health once you have the goals figured out. Here's how to do that:

• Understand any additional data sources you may need to include third-party insights, siloed information, and publicly accessible datasets.
• Check if there are any information gaps you need to fill and in case anything is missing, then is it siloed-off or not your property at all.
• Identify your target end-users and if the tools you select cater to their roles and skill set as different teams have different requirements.
• Understand what you need to get the results you want, for instance, accessing real-time data streaming, legacy equipment integration, etc.

Communicate Changes Quickly

A change towards a data-driven work culture impacts the entire organization. It is essential to communicate it to everyone, prioritize data literacy, and help with the changes that will occur.

Educate everyone on the reasons behind this change and the value addition it will create for the firm.

• Highlight successful implementation in the industry to show the benefits
• Provide clarity on how the tools can help everyone with their jobs
• Keep stakeholders in the loop at all times
• Explain the damages of failed deployments to the organization in the future

Use the Right Tools

With a change towards a data-driven culture, there is bound to be a skills gap that you can overcome with more business intelligence and intuitive analytics platforms. Self-service platforms that have AI capabilities can save workers time.

For instance, charts, graphs, and more visuals are quickly replacing traditional dashboards, allowing users to interpret data for fast action easily.

Considering this, you cannot rely on IT to select a suitable platform and have to make a decision keeping the end-user in mind. Additionally, involve your employees in testing various options to pick those that suit their workflows and skills.

Provide Access to Training

The right learning technologies can go a long way in creating a data-driven business culture. However, they are of no use if you don't address the relationship between an organization and data. According to an executive's research, 93% of respondents pointed out that the key barriers to full utilization of internal data are the people and processes in the firm.  

You need to focus on the right strategy, skills, and culture in your firm to use the advanced tools properly.

It's possible to do that with a unifying data strategy that makes training a priority and helps workers understand how to find the correct information using the tools at their disposal.

Contextual training will allow you to have buy-in, increase job performance, and enhance customer experience.

Conclusion

Creating a data-driven culture in your organization can be tricky and time-consuming. You have to consider your business goals and prepare your entire firm for the change, including training them for it, so the transition is seamless for everyone.

Head over to Definity First and see how you can become a data-driven business.