We are currently witnessing a data expansion, with projections showing that enterprise data doubled between 2020 and 2022. With such predictions in mind, it is no surprise that anyone running an organisation will try to stay ahead with their data and the opportunities it could open for businesses. 

However, it’s possible that the results of data projects aren’t always satisfactory or don’t deliver on expectations. Utilising data in a meaningful way that helps businesses is not as easy a task as it might seem. With ever-expanding amounts of data and different ways of leveraging it, the job of utilising your business’ data might turn out to be chaotic, and without a well-planned data strategy, it might even turn into a sisyphean task.

The saying goes: “a vision without a strategy remains an illusion”. To ensure your aim of meeting your objectives, using the power of data, does not remain an illusion, you should first concentrate on your data strategy. To know that data is the driving force of any business is one thing, but to correctly apply a data strategy to achieve your business goals and KPI’s is another. Like any strategy, a good data strategy has to start with a well-defined roadmap of desirable accomplishments. 

Often senior stakeholders have many unknown unknowns regarding their data and how it could be employed to their advantage. At Idiro, we start our customer’s data journey by reaching a common understanding of where they want to go and the goals they want to achieve. 

Prioritising your goals and objectives is the cornerstone of an efficient data strategy. The very first questions you must ask yourself are: 
  • What questions do you want to answer with your data? 
  • What business outcomes are you trying to achieve? 
  • What are your end goals, and how can data insights help you reach them?
The second step is identifying the key enablers in your data strategy, which will play a vital role in taking your business where you want it to be. 

Such key enablers are not always apparent to business owners. They might know their business, but we, at Idiro, have the knowledge of data, and more importantly, we have the tools to extract value from it. 

To simplify it, we can break key enablers into three main areas: 
  • People 
  • Processes
  • Technology
The secret to a successful data strategy is to identify the correct enabler that fits your business goals. Many different strands and directions open up within each of these enablers. To decide which path might be the best for your business, you should consider such variables as your goals, organisation size and data footprint.  

One more tip, which can boost your data efficiency, is to choose correct data for your goals. 

Jack of all trades, master of none, is how you should not treat your company’s data. Your company might be gathering a lot of data, but not all of it could serve a purpose. Don’t try to master it all but rather pick the essential data for your company’s goals and truly concentrate on it. 

The best way to identify the most vital data is by identifying the areas or aspects of your business you want to know more about or where you might need help in decision-making processes. For example, if you are a retail business, simply paying attention to the time of the day, day of the week or time of the year that brings the highest sales for certain products could help you organise your marketing, sales and even your stock.  It is also important to validate the approach from best practices already implemented in the industry. Each data strategy is different, but there are similarities you could learn from. As you can see, there are important steps that must be taken to implement a successful data strategy, and sometimes reaching out to experts can be the first step towards mastering your data.

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