Wednesday, July 20, 2016

How to Make your Company Data-driven

Optimum use of data in management is rapidly shifting from competitive advantage to competitive necessity. But implementing an effective data use policy can result in spending massive amounts of money with poor results if it is not done well.

Serious planning is a necessity. As with any planning activity, definition of objectives is crucial, including specific definition of strategic and operational business objectives, and identification of data that will meet these objectives.

There are massive amounts of data on the internet, but not all are readily available for consumption. This is a significant consideration. Also, if you are planing to use internet based data, don't even think about developing your own systems to handle it. It should be capable of being analyzed without downloading. There are numerous tools available in the cloud where online cloud-based analysis can be carried out.

Ensure the results of the analysis are placed in the right hands. This would have been planned in the objectives identification phase. But you need to make sure that the results are configured and visualized in ways that make good use of graphs and other visuals or pictorials. Often the recipients are busy and won't take the time to spend a additional time on the analysis unless there is a rapid gratification.

This leads to another point about presenting the results. It must be done with a minimum of disruption to the recipients normal routines.  Again, this approach will lead to better use of the analysis.

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