We’re constantly looking for new ways to improve in all aspects of our life, fine-tuning as we go. For businesses, this continuous improvement is critical to long-term success. And to make smart decisions, companies must make data the foundation for all digital efforts. In order to survive in today’s fast-paced market, we’ve got to be able to trust the accuracy of our data, interpret it quickly, and make adjustments.
Management of Data Integrity
Data collection and the management of data integrity go hand-in-hand. The need for clean data is imperative, considering that data and data sources are growing exponentially. As is the desire to use that data to make more informed decisions.
The focus on quality should be high on your radar. Without clean data, you’re back to square one. And if you think you don’t have a problem with data integrity, take a closer look. It’s estimated that “dirty data” – or data that is incomplete, inaccurate, invalid, or inconsistent – has a direct impact on the bottom line, costing companies significant revenue annually. You’ve invested significant resources obtaining data, making it all the more important that the data is of the highest quality.
Data management isn’t the responsibility of a single department. You should develop a coherent, centralized approach to data quality management that spans the enterprise. Look into establishing a data quality program, or data cleansing process, if you don’t already have something in place.
Centralization of Data
Part of a centralized approach is the consolidation of data. This includes appending enrichment data as necessary and bringing all disparate data together into a single view. Think beyond your data management platform as you look to manage the explosion of structured and unstructured data available from the web, mobile and offline, and develop an enterprise-wide approach to managing and maintaining data.
While it’s impossible to predict the future, it’s clear that businesses will continue to become more data-driven. Some organizations have embraced this and are shifting towards a data-driven culture, even hiring new roles such as chief experience officer or chief digital officer.
Data Visualization
Once you have established data as your foundation, and have developed a centralized, cohesive approach, what’s next? Data visualization and insights should be at the top of your list of must-have trends. Data visualization – dashboards that combine graphs and charts with real-time analytics – helps business users process relevant information quickly, and analyze in real time. It also allows you to quickly spot relativity of data to make appropriate segmentation and precise marketing decisions. Bottom line, make data a priority. Good data can provide invaluable insights, fueling direction and inspiring strategy, while bad data, or segregated data, can lead to costly mistakes and lost revenue.
For more information and additional trends impacting your business, download the full guide below. Do you have additional trends relevant to businesses in 2018? Comment below and share them with us!
