Those companies that view data as a strategic asset are the ones that will survive and thrive.
– Bernard Marr from his book, Data Strategy: How to Profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics and the Internet of Things
Effective data strategy enables you to accurately and easily see what is working in your business based in revenue and profitability. It enables you to predict where you will be in the future continuing with your current activities.
It also enables both your customers and employees to have a good experience, improving morale contributing to revenue.
Aligned with your business strategy, data strategy informs how to manage your data: data governance, naming conventions, processes.
Where is the data?
Data lives in all your digital systems, and covers your business from marketing channels and new customers to operational costs and your bottom line. Data strategy map on how you handle all the data in your systems and more specifically, informs what data you control and monitor.
Businesses (or really people!) create loads and loads of data every day. 328.77 million terabytes in fact in 2023. (Amount of Data Created Daily, Exploding Topics, 2023).
So it is critical to idenetify what data you need to manage to give you visibility into the heatlh of your company. This is the golden needle in the proverbial haystack. Once this data is identified and configured correctly, you will have data that 1) can more easily be shared across digital systems in an automated way and 2) can be scaled as you grow and generate more “data”>
So 95% of the data your company generates may not need managing but 5% may need to be in a very deliberate manner to give you the information you need. This benefits customers (and customer experience) as well as marketers and CEOs. It makes reporting far easier and more accurate including reporting for finances and big picture health of the company that’s aligned with your strategy.
I also have secret sauces like the Insight Igniter! which enables you to have breakthroughs through your people and data.
Where does the data come from?
Data comes from your digital tools. Common examples include social media accounts, excel sheets housing customer service records and finacial data, your web site, your financial software (quickbooks, etc.), your lead management/crm system, and even your internal collaboration platform (teams, trello, etc.)
Data governance needs to be in place and needs to align with your business strategy/goals.
