Data has become an important asset for a company and can no longer be ignored. It can turn out to be one of the biggest competitive advantages for any business. Today, for every business decision, every goal, or every strategy, a strong data support is a necessity that gives the real picture of the actual situation. Running on assumptions can bring you no success, it needs proof – and a strong data can provide the same.

The digital transformation wave has helped companies grow and the larger, longer-established businesses have now evolved into a complex, distributed organizations with complex IT infrastructures and processes that produce a huge volume of potentially valuable data. The challenge for companies is not to generate huge volumes of data but to reap maximum values out of it and using it to make it their competitive advantage.

In this article, we will discuss the 5 steps that can help a business with huge volumes of data to a data-driven organization and take more informed decisions.

Step 1 – Ensure the Quality of Data

As obvious as it may sound, it is one of the most important steps as it forms the pillar of every business decision that your organization makes. You have to ensure that all systems and processes are in place to provide high-quality data. Use the right set of tools that offer capabilities for data cleansing, profiling, and validation of the data that enters your system. Also, keep a track of corporate-wide data standard and policies and provide the right security for your data.

Step 2 – Define Your Goals

What are you trying to achieve? Is the data an actual requirement for your organization? How will the data be of use to your company in making strategies and goals? These questions need to be answered and you need to be specific as to what your goals are. Your data must align themselves with the requirements of your organization which is why it is important to look at it from a long-term perspective as well.

Step 3 – Connect the Dots with Data

What data is important for you to achieve your goals? It is important to understand the various variables involved in the data and how each of them affect your strategies and goals. You need to link the variables to the goals it supports and then have a full picture of useful and redundant data. Linking and getting a real-time picture through dashboards can be very useful in making amendments, if necessary, and addressing any issues that come in the process.

Step 4 – Ensure that the Data Flows down the Organisation

Data collection is a team effort. From Finance to HR to Marketing to Research to Analytics team – every participant of the organization is responsible for the data they have contributed for. Any change in the flow of data must be rightly informed to every member that is associated with the project and work together to achieve a common goal – building a competitive advantage for the organization.

Step 5 – Keep your Data Clean

Data volumes are expanding exponentially and new data sources are emerging every second. For any organization, it is important to keep only the data that is important to them and not to go for volumes, but for values. There is a bridge between the data and the information we get out of it, and the first move to cross the bridge is to keep the data clean.

Start small, work through the steps outlined above, identify your organizational goals, identify the data that matters and successfully turn it into something meaningful for both you and your customers. Feel free to reach out in case you have questions.