Effective integration of new data sources requires a thoughtful and strategic approach with stakeholders ... Emphasize business value: Clearly highlight the tangible benefits of integrating new data sources, such as improved decision making, increased efficiency and enhanced customer experience. Proactively address concerns: Identify potential concerns or challenges and address them proactively. This may include discussing data quality, security and privacy implications. Highlight success stories: Provide examples of successful data integration projects to illustrate the potential benefits. This can help to inspire confidence and enthusiasm among stakeholders.

To convince stakeholders of the benefits of integrating new data sources, start by highlighting the value-add they bring, such as improved decision-making, enriched analytics, or the ability to identify new opportunities. Use case studies or examples from similar industries to demonstrate how integrating diverse data has led to measurable outcomes like increased efficiency or revenue. Emphasize the competitive advantage, such as staying ahead in the market or meeting evolving customer needs. Prepare visual demonstrations or prototypes to show the potential insights from the new data sources. Finally, address concerns by outlining a clear integration plan with cost, timelines, and risk mitigation strategies to build trust and alignment.

Adding new data sources must prove adding value, long or short term. This normally comes as request from new business capabilities. Request can come from both business and tech. I see 3 categories of organisations and stakeholders: 1. Do not understand the strenght of data: Focus on the bigger picture and spend much more time on visualizing the long term benefits, focus on the end goal, and the WHY. Often you need to add more numbers to the business case to show the ROI. 2. Sees the benefit of beeing data driven but not fully understand the full potential: Focus on the value and how this brick fits in the bigger puzzle. 3. Mature data driven audience that see the full potential: Focus on the HOW.

Data integration decisions are usually business-driven, often led by the product team, but tech can also identify valuable data sources through analysis. If I came across such a need, I’d first pinpoint any gaps in the current data or assess how additional data could enhance insights. Once we understand the impact, I’d highlight how the new data could improve decision-making by providing a fuller picture. Suggesting a pilot implementation would help stakeholders see the potential value without a large upfront commitment.