Explain why this is needed
To get a business leader on board with investment in new systems, operations and infrastructure is a difficult task, but it can be achieved! With a comprehensive introduction into the benefits of a data-driven approach, alongside a realistic timeline and ROI prediction, business decision makers can be swayed to invest time and finances into becoming data-driven.
We know that utilising data to inform decisions and directions can be incredibly beneficial. Benefits include:
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Removing human bias and emotion from empirical data evidence.
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Internal and external actionable insights can be identified, monitored and implemented.
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Improving competitive advantages against competition.
We also know that being data-driven can see business transformations and operational improvements across each team and department. With the rise of digital tools and a new age of data software, businesses adopting data-driven approaches are seeing effects across:
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Business intelligence
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HR capabilities
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Finance and consulting accuracy and efficiency
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Improved customer care, support and services
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New product opportunities
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Improved marketing returns
But getting to the stage where these effects can be seen requires time, hard work and collaboration from a CDO to the rest of the business. A recent report from Accenture indicated that only 30% of businesses were taking a data-driven approach back in 2008, whereas 70% of businesses were doing so in 2021 – given enough time, this number will continue to grow. Businesses that have adopted a data-driven approach report c.70% higher revenue per employee than non-data-driven businesses.
It will require storytelling expertise as well as an education in data literacy and culture to cement the investment needed for this data journey.
Flexibility and extensibility
Once resources have been allocated for the journey to become data driven, the solutions must remain flexible and with a high degree of extensibility. It is pivotal that an organisation wanting to be data driven can swiftly and accurately replicate data from source to destination, as well as being able to accommodate any customisation required to achieve the specific goals of the business.
A traditional pinch point of this approach has been found with extract, load and transform (ELT) solutions. When sourcing an ELT solution, engineers require something with all the data connections they need – one source states that there are around 25,000 SaaS companies and then the average business uses more than 200 software applications, which makes finding the suitable solution incredibly challenging. There are different options available, including open source, but what works for one business may not work for another, which is why a degree of customisation is required and the business objectives need to be clearly identified.
The business environments we currently operate in are rapidly changing – the landscape has changed massively in the last ten years and who knows what it may look like in the next ten years. This means a CDO needs to find solutions that can be adapted to new technologies, collaborate with other software and be malleable enough to withstand different types of use from different stakeholders.
Trust
It is a topic that gets discussed regularly by DataIQ members and it cannot be overstated just how important the idea of trust is, particularly when making often radical changes to an organisation to achieve data-driven operations.
Data is sensitive and rightly needs to be monitored closely. Furthermore, the systems used to monitor, store and access data must be trustworthy, and by this we mean they need to be reliable, stable and secure. A suitable solution needs to be able to consistently operate with integrity at scale (reliable), while remaining useable (stable) and compliant (secure).
Finally, once set up, any solution being used to drive a data-forward operation needs to be trusted by all users. This means that the solution must integrate with all development stacks and be compatible with various data tools. To be able to source such a solution requires a CDO to communicate regularly with all departments, understand their data needs and be able to accurately explain how and why a particular solution would work.
Trust is particularly important for a business that is still finding its feet with data or is still progressing along the maturity curve. To bring in new technology, operating standards and daily tools to ensure a data-driven approach can be a daunting task, especially for those with lower data literacy. It may be necessary to invest time and resources into data literacy courses and training for specific teams.
To achieve the goal of being data-driven requires patience and plenty of collaboration which must all be spearheaded by the CDO. As is often discussed, the value of data is a difficult one to explain to those outside of the data world, but through storytelling, quick wins and the occasional moonshot, it is possible to demonstrate and reiterate the power of being data-driven over and over again.
Business leaders and decision makers need to be guided to the most suitable solutions for their specific data needs and this can only be done through the support of a capable CDO. No two businesses will have the same need for data reporting, data action and data availability, but there are ways in which they can all be addressed.
