What is a data strategy and why you need it?

This informal CPD article What is a data strategy and why you need it? was provided by The Tesseract Academy, providing executive training in data science, AI and blockchain.

Data strategy is the process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting data. It is also the process of determining how to use data to create value for your business. Data strategy helps you build a competitive advantage by using data to make better decisions, identify new prospects and stay ahead of your competition. Data Strategy can help businesses understand their customers better and leads to better customer experience. Additionally, it can guide them on how to improve the way they manage their products and services as well as identify new opportunities for growth.

Tips for a successful data strategy

1 - Analyze the right things

If you're in the business of producing money and have limited resources, limit your attention to indicators that are denoted by a currency sign. Can't seem to connect it to money? Forget about it.

2 - Determine what is important

Nowadays, you can measure almost everything, particularly if you use digital technology. That does not imply that you should do so. Concentrate on gathering data that will inform a statistic that you can alter.

3 - Stop clogging up inboxes with unnecessary emails

If you are presently sending out a slew of pre-written reports, halt. If no one notices after two weeks, you may utilize the time to do more sensible things with the resource rather than regurgitating papers that are seldom changed.

4 - Keep things as basic as possible

Instead of telling them about your laborious efforts, drill down to one or two figures that will have an impact on the choice you want them to make. Keep it someplace safe in case you be asked a question. The Very Important Person just needs to view the number at the bottom of the spreadsheet, which informs what you propose they do.

5 - Embrace the concept of automation

If it is possible to automate, do so. If you can create alerts for unusual outcomes, do so. Instead of spending time extracting and manipulating data to get to the outcomes, spend your time performing clever thinking about the data.

6 - Make use of the resources available to you

Don't be intimidated by the prospect of just utilizing Excel. Excel isn't going away, even though there are constantly new and exciting toys, visualizes, and fashionable languages to learn. With tactical Googling, you may do almost any kind of study you choose.

7 - Ensure that your reporting is credible

Do you want to make money from your website? Verify the accuracy of your tagging. The good news is that there are several tools and organizations that may assist you, and the result will be increased confidence and robustness from your data.

8 - Add a sprinkle of salt to taste

However, digital analytics is less accurate than expected. Customers switch devices mid-transaction, phones switch from mobile data to Wi-Fi, customers stop and call your helpline instead, bots react weirdly, and so on. Digital analytics should be seen as trend indicators rather than financial accounts with the same degree of accuracy. The point is not to ignore them, but to not be bothered about slight deviations.

9 - Tracking conversions

Your analytics software makes digital sales funnels straightforward. But sales funnels are vital for both online and offline businesses. The till is believed to measure purchases, but how much of your footfall really buys is unknown. Assign someone to keep track of the door-to-door visitors. Examine how this reading impacts you by repeating it daily or weekly. Take a standard self-portrait. The conversation rate is computed by dividing sales by customers who cross the barrier. Modify it and track it again.

How to implement a good data strategy?

1. Make a Plan and Get Buy-In

A data strategy begins with a proposal that garners support from throughout the company. Executive buy-in is required to acquire permission and resources to execute the plan. Getting buy-in from colleagues at all levels of your business is critical to a successful deployment. To achieve executive buy-in, illustrate how the approach will benefit the firm. Your report's economic reasoning will be key here. It may also illustrate how rivals use data to gain an edge. 

Give examples and statistics to support your assertions. Remember that gaining buy-in takes time. A data strategy may need multiple revisions to persuade stakeholders that it is desirable and viable.

2. Create a Data Supervision Team and Allocate Data Ascendancy Roles

This is time to put together a team to handle your data. A group of senior managers and department heads who understand the importance of data as well as the company's technological and organizational capabilities, opportunities, and restrictions have been selected. Employees from various areas of the firm should be on the team, not only techies. Your in-house people should be assessed and if necessary, recruited from outside to fill in any gaps in your data governance team's knowledge or expertise. Data strategy development and implementation. There will be a data management team responsible for assigning resources, developing, and updating policies, and reacting to data-related issues that arise. 

After forming your team, assign data governance duties to them. Determine who is responsible for ensuring standards compliance, installing technology, and informing personnel of policy changes at this point of the process Establishing clear lines of authority for each member of the team helps everyone feel more invested in the project's success.

3. Characterize the Data Types and Sources

Next, decide what data to gather and how to acquire it. How much data you require depends on your company objectives? As a publisher, you may tailor your terms according to the interests and posting preferences of your audience. Monitoring which articles certain reader groups often click on may help you figure this out. You might also have a peek at the social media profiles of your target audience to see what they find interesting and post about. Internet marketing may also be used to acquire new customers. Demographic information from online shoppers may help you get there. Third-party data matching these demographics may be purchased and used to target ads at specific individuals. If they are like your current clients, they are more likely to buy from you.

4. Plan data collection and distribution goals

Goal setting is an important component of data strategy development. Ascertain long-term and short-term objectives, as well as overarching and task-specific goals. Your data should ultimately support your company's goals. Achieve your objectives by describing how data may help each department. Your organization's five-year plan should include a description of how data will benefit the company. The company's strategy should be in line with its objective. The use of data may be targeted by each department. This way, the data management staff can have a better understanding of how the organization uses data.

5. Plan your data strategy

After setting objectives, prepare for achieving them. These strategies will form your data strategy's roadmap. Every goal you establish should be accompanied with a strategy. These plans should contain who owns the objective, the procedure and technology used, the cost, the time frame, and the expected result. These plans should also be flexible enough to be adjusted if something doesn't function as planned or if circumstances change.

6. Organize and store data

Your data strategy should include storage besides business strategies. These features of data managing are critical in determining data actionability and shareability. Data storage is a basic technological skill, although how it is stored varies greatly across companies. When planning your storage needs, think about how your storage strategy will affect data sharing and consumption. The way you arrange data affects its accessibility, comprehension, and usage. Your storage choice also impacts how easily departments may exchange data. Creating a data storage and organizing strategy should ultimately make data more accessible, shareable, and actionable for those who need it.

7. Get Consent and Start Using Your planned strategy

This business plan should contain all methods and resources needed to fulfil the company's data objectives, such as capital investments, new hiring, procedures, and organizational structures. After corporate leadership approves your plan, you can start executing and developing it. This will be a continuing effort. Regularly assess your tactics and the success of your firm in achieving your goals. As data becomes increasingly valuable to enterprises of all sizes, the need for a data strategy grows. You need a robust data strategy in order to maximize the value of your data.

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