In today’s economic landscape, thought leaders in virtually every industry tout data and its necessity in conducting business. Whether you work in a tech field or something completely non-tech related, and whether or not you’re currently employing data collection and analysis strategies within your business, you’ve likely picked up on data’s prevalence as a buzzword.
However, it’s just as likely that whether you are currently employing some kind of data collection or have in the past, you haven’t been impressed with the end results. Utilizing data in meaningful ways that actually help your business is a tough undertaking.
Many business owners that try to implement some kind of data practice in their organizations end up with mountains of unhelpful, indiscernible spreadsheets or large bills for services or software that promised an end to their data confusion but didn’t meet their needs. How do you weed through all the jargon and the sales pitches to employ a data strategy that actually helps your business and sets you up to scale?
Why data collection is important for businesses
When employed effectively, data collection can provide huge benefits for virtually any business type. Data can reveal insights that can not only be useful but vital to the success and growth of your organization. Applying data well can result in increased revenue, improvements in operational performance, more effective marketing strategies, and better customer relations and brand loyalty.
Because data collection and application is such a wide field, it is important to gain a workable understanding of data analysis techniques so that you can craft a data collection strategy that will aid your business. Every organization is different and, accordingly, its needs for data and how data collection is implemented into its operations will be unique.
If data practice isn’t thoughtfully applied to your business, a number of challenges can hinder its usefulness and may cause it to be forsaken altogether. These can include collecting the wrong data, collecting too much data, not clearly defining the purpose or outcomes of your data strategy, failing to achieve buy-in from your team, a lack of understanding surrounding how to effectively analyze or apply your data, and not defining the implementation process for learnings acquired from data collection.
Improve productivity, pinpoint & reduce bottlenecks & streamline your process with data
Countless case studies are published online that can help you design a data strategy that will meet the needs of your business type. One common example can be found in manufacturing businesses. Bottlenecks, places in the supply or creation chain that restrict production/advancement disproportionately as compared to other steps in the process, limit your profitability. By applying data collection and analysis to better understand your processes from start to finish, bottlenecks can be identified, diagnosed, and lessened or even removed completely. Improving production allows you to scale and grow your bottom line.
Similarly, retail or e-commerce companies can significantly benefit from effective data practice. Data collection can help you better understand the behavior of your customers. Analyzing what items are commonly bought together can indicate how to stock or arrange a brick and mortar location in order to increase sales. Paying attention to what times of day, days of the week, or periods during the year yield highest sales numbers for certain items or product types can inform your marketing, sales, and promotion to capitalize on consumer interest and behavior.
Plenty of other examples exist that can inform how you apply data to your business regardless of industry or type and can help you design your data practice.
Tools and tips for implementing data architectures to scale your business
Here are a few pieces of advice that can help you in your data implementation journey. These will help you avoid common pitfalls and make data useful to your business from the start:
Know Your “Why”
Having a boatload of data lying around won’t help you, and can be counterproductive, unless you know what you’d like to achieve with it. Data has been aptly described as “‘useless to humans unless tamed and harnessed.’” Before paying big money for a sleek Business Intelligence (BI) platform, sit down with your team and identify exactly what areas or aspects of your business you need to know more about or where you need help making better informed decisions. Work in stages and apply data in manageable increments, letting it prove its value before you expand.
Collect the Right Data
Are you trying to determine which of your social media account campaigns produce the biggest ROI? Doing a deep dive on aesthetic design comparisons or including stats from three years ago may not help you answer the question at hand. Are you asking an employee to perform specific data analysis who feels overwhelmed by the mountains of data he has to sift through to find what he’s looking for? Analysis isn’t cheap. Be aware of the man-hours you’re investing into data application and be vigilant about avoiding data overload.
Use an Existing Tool that is Well Suited for Your Business
Once you know what you’d like to accomplish with data, don’t reinvent the wheel or spend huge dollar amounts building your own proprietary software when countless solutions exist that meet a huge diversity of data needs and applications. Businesses that leverage the right technology solutions set themselves up to scale. BI software, SaaS data collection and analysis tools, and consulting services can help you save time in data design, implementation, collection, and analysis.
Read Next: Increase startup earnings by automating your lead nurturing process
