Data driven organisation

The data-driven organisation: building a data strategy

The data-driven organisation puts data and analytics front and centre in its business strategy and throughout all echolons. It differentiates itself from competition by making data-driven optimisation part of daily operations.

Many companies today are striving to become data-driven. But what does that mean exactly? More than just installing the right tools and applications, becoming data-driven is about making data and analytics part of the business strategy, its systems, processes and culture. It’s about creating a mindset in which analytics form the basis of all fact-based business decisions, and are embraced by all levels of the organisation.

Just like electricity, data has become a basic enterprise asset that is quickly revolutionising the world, enabling better, faster, cheaper business processes. Data-driven organisations are committed to gathering data concerning all aspects of the business. By enabling employees at every level to use the right data at the right time, data can foster conclusive decision-making and becomes part of the companies’ competitive advantage.

The challenges of becoming data-driven

Privacy regulations 

The rise of data-driven organisations ultimately creates a more transparent world and increases trust between businesses and the market. The risks of invasion of privacy, market manipulation and monopolisation, however, have dominated the news for quite some time. That’s why data-driven organisations need to have a profound knowledge of new rules, like GDPR, to avoid steep fines and sanctions or even lose their license to operate.

Persistent silo thinking 

While most companies agree that data should be at the heart of everything they do, the majority don’t have a solid, company-wide data strategy in place and continue to keep information siloed. At delaware we live by the principle that sharing data is a positive sum game.

Lack of data integrity 

Most companies already have ample data to make insightful decisions, but most of that information is poorly managed and exploited. In other words, there is a clear need for better data management and governance.

Having the right skills 

According to a study by Gartner, companies struggle to meet the data skills requirements they need. More than just number-crunching, there is a fine art to data science. Finding the data-savy people who understand the company and have profound technological knowledge as well is not an easy feat.

Identifying the right technology 

And finally, due to the overabundance of data solutions, many companies today are struggling to find a good fit for their specific case. Identifying the best-fitting technologies and implementing them successfully remains one of the top challenges on the road to data-driven greatness.

The data-driven world

For most companies, data and analytics are mostly important to driving operational excellence and fostering better customer relations. Innovative organisations use new technologies and insights to go a step further and rethink their whole strategy, or even come up with new and creative business models. For example, governments can provide better services to citizens, hospitals can care for patients beyond clinic walls, and companies can build data-driven platforms that invite more clients and partners to co-create new products and services and unlock new sources of value.