How to become an agile, data-driven company

Over the past few
years, the time organizations have at their disposal to make crucial decisions
has been drastically reduced. According to a study by IDC, 42% of managers have
just 24 hours to make an important business decision. Yet, in many cases, they
don’t have access to data to make a truly informed decision. This problem is a
common one and, for a lot of organizations, choices must be made quickly in
order to respond to a pressing issue.

Organizations simply
need to become more efficient and productive. According to the Asia Data
Culture Study 2016[i], 88% of
polled business leaders in Asia agree that an agile business must be
data-driven as this increases the ability to make real-time decisions. While there’s
a plethora of ways for them to do so, the ideal solution is gaining a complete
overview of what’s currently happening across the business.

This means
bringing all intelligence into one location and making it available for
everyone to access and analyze. After all, it’s only when you allow your staff
to see the information for themselves that they can uncover new trends and
relationships that facilitate decision-making – not only at the top, but at all
levels.

Fortunately, there
are visual analytics technologies available
that anyone can use to gain a better understanding – on a global scale – of their
organization. Taking full advantage of visual analytics also helps anyone in
any business tap into huge volumes of data to gain insight into what’s
happening across their company. With that visibility, they can make educated
decisions on the best ways to tackle tasks and forge ahead.

An IDC report[ii]
highlights that Asia Pacific organizations are maturing their capabilities to
understand and leverage Big Data and Analytics technologies by 34% as compared
to 7% in 2014. It seems like the mindset change is already underway, but how
can an organization become truly data-driven? Here are some useful suggestions:

1. Focus on people

Data is an
important asset in decision-making and a key source for knowledge within an organization,
but it’s the people within that company who have the power to assess whether a
decision is right or not. Therefore, companies should equip their employees
with easy-to-use analytics to get the most knowledge from their data.2. Agile decisions

64%
of business managers have seen the time allowed for decision-making shrink in
the last 12 months, with 42% citing that decisions need to be made in less
24hrs[iii].
Data-driven enterprises
differ from the rest due to their agility in the decision-making process. Being
quick with their decisions allows them to better respond to dynamic business
environments and competitive markets.3. Make use of all data

Data increasingly resides across a broad
ecosystem of sources – from traditional internal enterprise applications, line
of business solutions, in the cloud and on people’s desktops, but increasingly
from open and external sources. Data-driven enterprises provide a framework for
users to access and analyse all their data irrespective of source, internal or
external. These enterprises also don’t limit analysis to preconceived notions
of how data should be structured, instead allowing freeform analysis no matter
how it is structured. By stripping away traditional boundaries, and integrating
seemingly disparate data, we can uncover insights from associations that are
not immediately obvious. For example, external data such as weather patterns
can be visualized with internal ice cream sales records to establish a
correlation. Following which, strategies can be developed accordingly to boost
sales.

4. Encourage experimentation, don’t be
afraid of failure

Traditional
analytics don’t encourage people to navigate away from a certain path of
enquiry, but it’s looking beyond a set route that can help organizations to
make the most innovative decisions. Organizations must therefore allow all
people access to wider data sets and let them analyze freely – even if it means
sometimes making mistakes.  After all, if
people can analyze without worrying about risk of failure then they’re more
likely to move outside of their comfort zone – and make discoveries that can
really change the business.5. Don’t make assumptions about what you
might find

A lot of organizations
just use analytics to get an answer to a very defined question. But this limits
analysis (and therefore the insights that can be gained) significantly. If
companies start using data analysis more broadly – just to see what’s going on
across the organization – rather than limiting themselves to finding answers
from specific data sets, they’ll be in a better position to get a broader view
of what’s actually happening.6. Extend analysis to all levels

According to a
study by Gartner[iv],
analytic tools do not reach more than 25% of non-technical users in an organization.
In order to achieve company-wide adoption of data analysis, platforms need to
be both accessible and usable for anyone from the HR Manager through to the
Head of Marketing, or even shop floor staff.  After all, giving everyone the ability to do
data analysis means more knowledge can be harnessed.7. Make sure data analysis is at the
heart of any decision-making

More people are
using analytics for business than ever before, but it’s still important to make
sure staff have the ability to analyze data wherever and whenever they need to
make a decision. This means giving staff access to analytics platforms from any
device and from any location.  A recent
study by Qlik shows 45% of users start analysis on a device such as a desktop
computer, and then look to finish the task an hour or so later on a smartphone
or tablet.8. Go beyond your company

An organization’s
intelligence shouldn’t be limited to internal data or the knowledge of its
employees, but should also make use of data from its external ecosystem of
partners, customers, suppliers, and so on. The data available for analysis
should therefore not be the exclusive domain of people within the organization
– it needs to incorporate information from third parties as well.

9. Embrace Governance

Governance is
often seen as standing in the way of the innovation and agility of a business,
but without it, organizations would face unnecessary risks. Governance –
getting the right data sets to the right people – is key to empowering users
with the appropriate information needed to improve their decision-making. With
this in mind, governance should focus less on power and surveillance, and more on
opening access to relevant applications and analytics up to the business
community.10. Data-driven business models

Data-driven organizations recognize that data
analysis doesn’t just help leaders make the best decisions in a short timeframe,
but can also help to identify new growth opportunities, define new business
models and show new ways to reduce risks. More than half of companies with big data
projects, according to Gartner[v],
focus the use of their data in generating new business ideas or design to optimize
sales processes. By putting data at the heart of all operations, organizations
can gain more than just agile decision-making, it may open doors to new
business models.

We now have more
data available to us than ever before, which makes us more informed as a
society. Through visual analytics technologies, organizations are able to drive
changes, optimize their business and, ultimately, improve their
decision-making. The new data-driven business models need to focus on people.
The key will be to equip each and every member of staff with the ability to analyze
data and get insights that can help drive the business forward.