Do You Have A Data Strategy?

Simply put, data is an invaluable resource for all businesses today. While we understand the value of data, many businesses face the challenge of unlocking the proper data due to high volumes of data coming in. Collecting, organizing and activating the data you will need will be an issue without first planning out your data strategy. This will assist any business to overcome those challenges and efficiently access the value of their data.

Data Strategy Defined

Data strategy can be defined as a vision for how your company collects, stores, manages, shares and uses your data. It is a concept that explains how your company data will support and inspire your business strategy.

No two organization’s data strategy will be the same. In general, there are common concepts that can be identified.

·     You have defined how data is supporting the business goals.

·     A design of how the data activities will be completed to meet objectives.

·     Articulate the changes your company will need to maximize the data activities value and further outlines the plan on how those changes will be made for the organization.

·     Timeline to be established regarding the completion of the proposed data activities. Milestones to be defined, priorities will be set and description included for steps moving forward.

·     Discussion of the financial reasoning behind the suggested data activities, including how the organization will benefit from them. Explain insights that will be used to increase profits and other monetization of the data.

A Look at The Importance of Having A Data Strategy.

It unlocks the power of data: Using data strategy here means making sure employees are guided to use the most relevant data, sifted from all incoming information streams, and ensuring all people across the organization use this information in a consistent manner.

Increasing Volumes of Data Coming In: Not too long ago, using common knowledge alone worked in managing a company’s data. While it wasn’t the most efficient, it wasn’t taxing on the organization as data volumes were low. Today’s business can collect huge volumes of data, making it near impossible for any one person to keep track of all the information relevant to them. Data strategy will help define how to make efficient use of the data streams coming in and assigning where it goes or who receives what or determining what its relative important is.

Data Strategy Best Practices

What you will include specifically in your organizations data strategy will ultimately depend on what data you’ve determined is of value that benefits the company and will help the business grow.

By examine a few areas, you can better define your data strategy.

Business strategy: Creating your data strategy should not be done in a silo. The overall business strategy is what drives the data strategy. Consider your organizations strategic priorities first. Ask any ley business questions that need to be answered.

Identify Quick Wins: Big strategic data initiatives and priorities will take time to implement and deliver. Knowing this, it is helpful to find one to three items that you can implement quickly. These are fast, relatively inexpensive ways to add value to the business and demonstrate a short-term ROI. This will eventually gain buy-in for you for the larger projects.

Data Requirements and Governance: While data requirements determine what you will need to achieve your business goals (data structure, internal, external data sources etc.), if not chosen properly, there can be serious liability if data governance is not adhered to. Take the time to think about, data quality and security. Be careful to comply with data privacy and any ownership issues.

Identifying Technology: Once you’ve decided on the structure and setup of your data, you will need to identify the technology and the infrastructure design based on those earlier decisions. Collecting data, storing/organizing data, analyzing data and communicating insights, will all need to be defined.

Implementation: It is one thing to make a plan and another to see it deployed and delivered. Ask how you will be able to implement the project plan? What are the key activities and milestones? Who is responsible for what? What changes will the business need to make to support his change?

Final Thoughts

Once all the items above are completed in your first pass, you will be on your way to a more formal data strategy plan document to present to your stakeholders.

Creating a data strategy is not a stand-alone activity and must involve other departments. It will need to reflect your business needs as well as support your business overall strategy as the major priority.