Making the most of your data assets in today’s market

It’s no secret that we are in the throes of a data explosion. Data—in terms of volume, velocity, variety, structures, platforms, and diversity of sources—is being generated, evolving, and expanding at an unprecedented rate.

Studies project that the amount of data created in the three-year period from 2021-2024, will surpass all the data created in aggregate over the 30 years prior.

Not long ago, it was common to compare data to oil—a resource that, when tapped, can greatly enrich your business. But in today’s climate, many analysts consider data to be more analogous to water—the single most important resource an enterprise can have, life itself to your business. A company simply cannot survive and thrive without it.

However, having data is only as valuable as an enterprise’s ability to harness that data to drive growth.

As MIT Technology Review puts it, “[D]eriving value from data has become a business imperative, making the consequences of not managing your organization’s data more severe—from lack of critical business insights to the hobbling of AI implementations.”

Unfortunately, at the same time, due to the increasing complexity of the entire data landscape, the majority of organizations have been unable to keep up, and find themselves ill equipped to manage the amount of data at their disposal, or leverage it for the concrete benefit of their business.

To continue the water analogy, your organization can be inundated with data, but if it isn’t useful—if you don’t have systems in place to channel it, able to feed your business by converting information into actionable insights, optimized decision-making, process improvement, a more engaged and effective workforce, happier customers, and tangible results—you are only drowning in data.

Recent studies have shown that less than 25% of companies believe they are truly data-driven, and less than 35% are currently gaining to concrete value from their data. This is the notorious and widening data-value gap.

Poor data management results in inferior data quality, increased risk (data loss and/or breach), lack of agility, delayed response to problems, tedious and time-consuming manual tasks for your team, obstruction of a holistic view, suboptimal decision making, a barrier to AI and ML implementation, and higher costs (from increasingly difficult and expensive maintenance to missed opportunities).

The most common roadblocks to successful data management tend to accumulate over time and frequently reflect the larger organizational structure: legacy systems result in silos and slow processing; the absence of a data-centered company culture stems from both a shortage of updated skills among teams and a lack of support among leadership for big data initiatives and culture shift.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, in order to put data at the center of your business and leverage it effectually, you need to focus on people. From enterprise leadership through your entire workforce, it’s crucial to orient organizational culture around data; to create belief, buy-in, and capability—understanding of the power of optimized data; motivation to put data to use for both overarching and day-to-day business decisions; and empowerment through democratization of data and up-skilling as needed.

What does it mean to truly harness the power of information? What does a complete, end-to-end modern data strategy look like in action?  Consider these four pillars:

Alignment. Your data strategy should arise from and directly serve your greatest business goals. What do you want to achieve? What do you need your data to tell you? What problems must it help you solve? How will it enable you to create a more satisfying customer experience? What are the tangible measures of its effectiveness?

Modernization. Identify and deploy the best tools for your unique needs. Design and implement comprehensive modern infrastructure—an end-to-end platform that facilitates data storage, access, analysis, visualization, deep insights, predictions, and clear, concrete, fact-based, actionable decisions.

Unification. Build an integrated data ecosystem that:

• Eliminates silos and cumbersome legacy systems
• Establishes and draws on a single source of truth
• Enables a seamless flow of high-quality, reliable, up-to-date data
• Is well-governed and secure
• Democratizes data, making it accessible, user-friendly, trustworthy, and secure for all relevant stakeholders

Innovation. Holistically reimagine all business processes within a data-driven framework. An effective modern data strategy empowers your entire team, freeing them to focus time and energy on meaningful work, and spurring collaboration and innovation.

The veteran business and technology experts at Lukasa understand the opportunities, challenges, and imperatives presented by our rapidly evolving data climate. As data strategy specialists, we take a partnership approach to every project. We work directly with your team to gain a 360-degree understanding of your company’s unique objectives, needs, and pain points, and provide custom data solutions that help you not only cope with the data deluge, but harness its power to transform your business.

About Lukasa - lukasa.com
Lukasa empowers small-to-medium-sized businesses by designing and implementing custom business and technology solutions that drive efficiency, productivity, and innovation, enabling them to stay ahead in today’s rapidly-changing competitive landscape.