Data is driving business change

For those with an interest in business transformation 2024 has been a strange year, hiring activity across the sector is into the 8^th month of falling demand (as of June 2024) however there are clear signs that the groundwork is being laid for a new spate of change and transformation initiatives that should give encouragement to those either currently out of work or looking for a new challenge on either a permanent or interim basis.

After years of lip service to the role of data in business planning it’s been economic factors that have truly pushed data up the agenda as a more defensive managerial mindset looks for business improvement initiatives that can be sold internally and externally as objectively crucial, understanding what data is telling you is the first stage in this. Many companies like to think of themselves as “data-driven” but in practice this often boils down to some automated reporting and the Harvard Business review estimates 45% of executives disregard facts and figures when making key decisions preferring to rely on gut instinct. In fact, to be truly data driven an organisation must:

• Have a thorough understanding of a wide range of structured and unstructured data.
• Be able to filter and extract valuable data from operational and financial information.
• Apply data-derived insights into budgeting, planning, and making decisions.
• Forecast outcomes or potential frauds more accurately than conventional methods.
• Use real-time data to determine where to invest and seek emerging opportunities.
• Can create relevant dashboards to ensure data consistency and measure success more easily.
• Spot the company’s competitive edge to service customers better.

The following diagram also nicely outlines the requirement for an organisation to consider themselves data driven

Source: Aquiles Solutions

The concept of data driving business change isn’t new but the increased adoption of AI tools and machine learning is allowing those who invest to provide even greater insights that the whole business can get behind, for example AI algorithms can analyse vast amounts of data and generate insights without human intervention, identifying patterns and trends that may not be immediately apparent while machine learning models predict future trends and prescribe actions to optimise outcomes, providing businesses with a competitive edge. The adoption of natural language processing allows users to query data and generate reports using natural language, making BI tools more accessible to non-technical users with automated data preparation cleaning and preparing data for them, reducing the time and effort required for data analysis.

This is just the tip of the iceberg but to even begin to leverage these new powers businesses need to know what data they have, where it’s held, who owns it and what state it’s in and it’s this that is serving as a catalyst for change. With next generation BI focused on making data analysis more accessible, faster, and more insightful, enabling organizations to harness the full potential of their data to drive strategic decision-making and operational efficiency the “prize” for business is huge, CEO’s are excited and terrified in equal measure; excited to see what they can achieve but terrified of being left behind and if they aren’t then they should be. It doesn’t happen by itself though, to leverage the power of data businesses need to both hire and redeploy. In particular the redeployment of existing staff to data teams, particularly in the managerial roles, allows businesses to leverage the institutional knowledge and personal relationships that wil be needed while hiring data engineers able to understand what they are looking at and working with is key to the success of the project. We’ve noticed a clear trend in recent weeks to start building the teams needed to conduct scoping and discovery work with a specific focus on maximising the data that the business holds to either drive efficiencies, plan better for the future (forecasting) or improving the customer experience.  This has been in the form of newly formed internal teams with requirements for data orientated roles as well as an uptick in demand for business analysts to start piecing together what the data is telling them, programmes of change work will surely follow.

Is your company a truly data driven and if not do you have the team in place to get there or are you looking for your next challenge in this space, please get in touch with me to discuss your needs, I’d be delighted to assist.