Integrating the Dataverse

  All week we have been diving deep into data strategies and how we can laser focus our organizations with them.  Making faster decisions, looking to know our customers, being able to adapt with our markets or braving new roads we have the tools to move forward....in business.  But Friday is always when we apply what we learn to ourselves. Tell me, how well do you know your family or friends past their name or address?  In this disconnected world wouldn't it be nice to know them better?  How can we execute the principals we have learned in our personal lives this weekend? Just like in the office your goal revolves around data. Here are some ways to use data to learn more about your family: Gather data : The first step is to gather data about your family. This could include things like their birthdays, interests, hobbies, and family history. You can gather this data by talking to your family members, looking at old photos and documents, or using online reso...

We have seen how data strategies can be used in many different ways.  What if your organization already knows who its customers are and is already very agile?  Honestly if that is the case your organization has probably already been using data strategies. So how do you capitalize on the momentum that you have?   Sounds like you need to refine your data strategy so that you can create new opportunities. What does that look like? If you already have a mature data strategy then you are already collecting many different data points. But how are you analyzing that data effectively to gain a significant advantage over their competitors? By using data to gain insights into customer behavior, market trends, and operational inefficiencies, you will be able to identify new opportunities to grow your business. Here are some data strategy principals that can help you seize new opportunities: Performance management : This is the idea to use data to track and measure the p...

We have covered two directions that a data strategy can go over the last few days, how to make good fast decisions and how to connect with your customer.  Today we are going to see how a data strategy can help your organization respond to changing business conditions. Change is the only thing we can guarantee in our businesses.  When this happens in a market segment that your organization is competing in are you leading in adapting to the change or are you following?  The difference in some situations can be fatal. According to data from the bureau of labor, 20% of small businesses fail during their first year of operations.  Now there are a lot of factors that play into that but one of them is not being able to adapt to the business environment that they find themselves in.  So how can a data strategy turn your organization into a trend setter? Well to see the change coming you need data.  Lots and lots of data.  So, a data strategy that is focused on...

Yesterday we talked about how to make faster business decisions and how our data strategy will enable that.  Today we will look at another path a data strategy can take you on, being customer-centric. The Customer.  In some organizations defining a customer is very hard.  Sure you have people that buy stuff from you but do you need to differentiate between an internal customer and an external customer?  And if you do the definition of INTERNAL can also get complicated.  And what about the type of customer, one who buys products from you, one who buys services from you, and one who buys both?  Do the different types of customers merit different sales approaches or different incentives?  Which one is more profitable?  Which one is harder to meet their expectations?  When you have a conversation about customers you are diving into a black hole of uncertainty if you do not have a data strategy.  Remember the data strategy is what unites the ...

Today we pick up where we left off last week talking about data strategies. Last week we focused on what a data strategy was, how to develop one, and why it was so important to providing a clear and logical path to accomplish the business goals. This week we are going to focus on different types of data strategies.  Today its all abut being faster. The way that business moves, you have to be faster than your competition.  You have to get that service ready for market first, or that product ready to ship.  Have you ever wondered what the difference is between the two organizations, the one that gets to market first vs the one that follows?  The short answer is the influencers in that winning organization made the decisions first with confidence.  And how did they do that?  They had a solid data strategy behind them that enabled them to be fast.  With the proper information that is easily accessible, a businesses can take a good "gut" decision and...

As the pattern goes, Friday is a day of reflection.  How can we understand the concepts of a data strategy and use them outside of the office?  Well the truth is a data strategy is just a way to organize yourself to reach a goal, it just happens to implement information as part of the path.  We all have places we want to go.  Are you trying to lose weight?  Worried about your budget?  Do you have more than one personal goal that you need to divide your time to accomplish?  All of these scenarios and many more work better with data. So what principles of a data strategy can be applied to our day-to-day lives to help us accomplish our goals? Understand your goals . What do you want to achieve by using data? Once you know your goals, you can start to collect the right data and use it to make informed decisions. Gather the right data . Not all data is created equal. The data you collect should be relevant to your goals and accurate. Clean and organize your...

We have checked off all of our tasks on the road map.  The capabilities that we wanted to implement are up and running and our staff is fully imbedded in the new technologies.  Reports are going out the door so now sit back and enjoy all of the fruits of your hard work.  The reality of business is a totally different story.  Business objectives change, markets change, regulations change.  Change is the name of the game so how do we know if our data strategy was a success? Well how did we track against the road map? Did we stay in communication with the business and the IT department? Can we see a measurable improvement in services sold or products that went to market? A successful business data strategy is one that helps the organization achieve its goals. If those goals change it does not mean that you did not succeed. So what are the characteristics of success? Improved decision-making : A good data strategy should help the organization make better de...