While every organization’s journey to digital transformation looks different, one thing remains the same — the importance of data. Tackling your data systems and processes is vital to fully transform.
However, the reality is that most organizations are overwhelmed with data about their customers. But these troves of information are completely useless unless companies know that the data they have is accurate and how to analyze it to make the right business decisions.
In today’s world, organizations have been forced to pivot and have realized the value data can bring to drive insight and empower their decision-making. However, many organizations have also recognized their data immaturity.
So how do you move forward?
The role of data in digital transformation
Data can be your organization’s biggest asset, but only if it is used correctly. And things have changed. A lot of organizations have completed the first steps in their digital transformation, but now they are stuck — they aren’t getting the results they expected. Why? They haven’t truly leveraged their data.
According to Forrester, “Firms make fewer than 50% of their decisions on quantitative information as opposed to gut feelings, experiences, or opinions.” The same survey also showed that while 85% of those respondents wanted to improve their use of data insights, 91% found it challenging to do so.
So, now that you’ve got the data, how can you make it more valuable?
Data strategy is key to your digital transformation
With so many systems and devices connected, the right information and reporting is critical. But first, you have to make sure you have the right technology in place.
Utilizing big data
Although you might feel inundated with the amount of data you have coming in, using big data analytics can bring significant value to your digital transformation. Through big data analytics, you can get to a granular level and create an unprecedented customer experience. With information about what customers buy, when they buy it, how often they buy it, etc., you can meet their future needs. It enables both digitization and automation to improve efficiency and business processes.
Optimizing your legacy systems
Legacy systems are critical to your everyday business, but can be slow to change. Why fix what’s not necessarily broken? But just because systems are functioning correctly doesn’t mean they’re functioning at the level you need them to — a level that is conducive to achieving your data and digital transformation goals.
This doesn’t have to mean an entire overhaul. You’ve likely invested a lot into your legacy systems. One key to a good data strategy is understanding how to leverage your legacy systems to make them a part of (instead of a roadblock to) your digital transformation.
With the enormous scale of data so closely tied to applications, coding and deployment can often make this stage of your digital transformation feel overwhelming. Sometimes DevOps tooling and processes are incompatible with these systems. Therefore, they are unable to benefit from Agile techniques, continuous integration, and delivery tooling.
But it doesn’t have to feel impossible — you just need the right plan and the right technology.
Focusing on your data quality
Even with the right plan and technology, you have to have the right data. Bad data can have huge consequences for an organization and can lead to business decisions made on inaccurate analytics. Ultimately, good data needs to meet five criteria: accuracy, relevancy, completeness, timeliness, and consistency. With these criteria in place, you will be in the right position to use your data to achieve your digital transformation goals.
Implementing a data strategy with digital transformation in mind
So how do you implement your data strategy? You should start by tackling your data engineering and data analytics.
The more you can trust your data, the more possibilities you have. By solving your data quality problem, you can achieve trust in your data analytics. And then, the more data you have on your customers, the more effective you can make your customer experience. But, this all requires a comprehensive data strategy that allows your quality data to be compiled and analyzed so you can use it to create actionable insights. The biggest tools to help here — AI and machine learning.
The benefits of a data-driven digital transformation
The benefits of investing in your data are clear, including increased speed to market, faster incremental returns, extended capabilities, and easier access and integration of data.
Discover more about the different ways you can invest in your data and improve and accelerate ROI for your organization.
Ultimately, your goal is to elevate how you deliver value to your customers.
Digital transformation is the key to understanding your customers better and providing a personalized customer experience for them. Leveraging your data can make all the difference between you and your competitors. And we’re here to help. Learn more about how some of our clients have benefited from investing in their data and digital transformation.
