5 Ways to Enable Data-Driven Decisions in Your Organization

It is critical for organizations in today’s digital world to be able to analyze real-time data strategically, whether to improve customer experience, optimize processes, or enable better decision-making. There are a host of business use cases for data intelligence across marketing and operations, ranging from audience segmentation to site selection. 

So what does best practice look like when it comes to effectively leveraging external and internal data? What are the major concerns that arise during the journey towards becoming a data-driven organization? 

Below are five tips that will help you build a data-driven organization:

1. Build a data-driven culture: Becoming a data-driven organization is not dependent only on the data and the technology, although both play very important parts. The foundation needed here is a culture that enables and empowers employees to back all decisions with data. This step involves a cultural shift within the organization by building a framework that would enable everyone from data scientists and analysts to marketers or operational managers. Essentially, what this means is that the necessary information must filter down to the employees who are making daily decisions on various tasks. This could include the ad campaign manager or the sales representative trying to determine which accounts to go after.

2. Democratize access to the data: A data-driven organization must be able to consolidate its data and store it in one centralized storehouse while ensuring it is updated so that employees have access to the latest and most accurate data points. Having the data in one centralized location also means data engineers or analysts can create dashboards that different teams can refer to for insights or trends. This is especially useful for teams that might not have the technical expertise to visualize or analyze the data.

3. Promote data literacy: Data literacy is the foundation needed to build a data-driven organization. For employees to be willing to adapt to change, they must be able to understand it. A basic understanding of data science and its business application is essential if employees are to grow and influence others into becoming more data-driven in their everyday decision-making. Employees must be taught how to analyze the data, ask the right questions and use the insights to make better decisions.

4. Invest in the right tools: Investing in the right data tools is crucial to enable non-tech employees to be able to generate insights from the data accessible to them. Not every organization will need or be able to afford a data scientist or modeler, so to make data self-service for non-technical individuals from Marketing or Sales teams, for example, the right tools are needed. The tools should enable your employees to access, analyze and share insights and also be easily integrated with other tools they regularly use. And just paying for a tool will not suffice, employees must also be periodically trained to use the tool efficiently.

5. Enable actionable insights: Decision-makers often face another problem; the insights are not actionable or simply establish what they already know to be true. Leaders need to utilize the opportunity to examine how they want to enable individuals to use the information, collaborate, come to a decision, and finally, take action. The quality of data and the processes that need to be established must result in actionable insights. This can really drive improvement, encouraging individuals at all levels to use the data more effectively and see the results for themselves.

Building a data-driven organization is not an easy task, requiring time and consistent effort, but the rewards are worth the investment. It is especially important now as businesses worldwide grapple with a rapidly changing consumer environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With historical data becoming irrelevant, businesses will need access to not only real-time data but data that can bridge the gap between digital and real-world behavior of consumers. 

Data-driven organizations are best-positioned to grow their customer base, build existing customer loyalty, and adapt to change overall. Get a demo to learn how to enable more data-driven decisions in your organization.