Introduction
Large volumes of data are processed, collected and reported by businesses each day. In fact, two hours is the average time a typical business user spends manipulating and massaging data each day. A strong data strategy is required to be able to manage and scale to the volumes of data growth, reduce the inefficiency of your resources and ultimately get a return on the underlying value of that data.
The Need for Data
Data is important for businesses and there are no two ways about it. Whether you are working for a large enterprise or a small business, you will always have critical business decisions to make. Not only will you need to make these decisions, you will need to make them fast and often. Competition is fierce, markets are evolving, business is complex and every second wasted is an opportunity lost. So, what is required to make quick, accurate decisions? Data—lots and lots of it. But, this data needs to be relevant and how do you ensure that? With a strong data strategy.
What a Strong Data Strategy Entails
Every business needs valuable data and insights. Collected during a business’ operations, data is the facts and statistics pertaining to the business. Used to record or measure a range of business activities, as is, a can be both internal and external. While data as is may not be very useful, it is the basis for all reporting, which makes it crucial in business.
Today, financial regulators are asking businesses to significantly improve their risk management practices. To achieve this, data needs to be at the core of business operations. Often, businesses underestimate the importance of data when performing enterprise risk management (ERM) even though it is a known fact that data is the key enable for ERM.
It is seen that business owners, managers and other staff members often make business decisions based faulty data, incomplete information or data that comes in too late. You’ve probably been a victim of this. The only way out of this is having a strong data strategy. A strong data strategy eliminates data bottlenecks, gives corporations confidence in their processes and provides transparency and security, which in turn decreases the chances of failure or error.
But, what does a strong data strategy entail?
Several posts are needed to do justice to elaborating data strategy; however, to sum things up, a strong data strategy is a strategy that is:
- Meets the needs of many departments in the enterprise
- Timely and accurate when it comes to data collection
- Provides easy and rapid access to data as it comes in
- Connected and integrated with processes and systems in the organization
- Scalable and malleable to ongoing business needs
Conclusion
Regardless of your industry, your role or if you are looking at data related to forecasts, pricing, storage, shipping, weather, fx rates or otherwise, you need to meet the above criteria to maximize your success. You can get more information on this by contacting us today!