The Advantages of Using Data to Guide Decision-Making

While many organisations still rely on intuition and opinion when it comes to making business decisions, more and more are turning to data and analytics. This is because it’s never been easier for organisations like yours to collect, analyse and interpret data into real, actionable insights.

​​By making business decisions that are backed by razor-sharp metrics, your business will be propelled to new heights, while making it more adaptable to your ever-changing commercial environment.

Keep reading to discover all you need to know about data-driven decision-making, the importance of data-driven decisions, and the benefits of developing a data-driven culture in your organisation. We’ll look at:

  • The trick to using collected data to your benefit
  • Understanding why all data is not equal
  • How you can make better data-driven decisions
  • ​​Drilling down the benefits of data-driven decision making
  • Kick-starting your digital transformation with a digital solutions expert

The trick to using collected data to your benefit

Now that organisations realise the importance of data analysis and business intelligence (BI) they’re investing big bucks to collect as much data as possible. The result? Many are now flooded (some would say drowning) with data.

Knowing how to use data effectively, evaluating which data matters and what processes should be automated, are the challenges organisations now face. Technology and data management leaders are still determining the best way to store, manage and understand data to ensure decision makers have the best tools and right data available. p>

The reason for this, is that having the right data to make better decisions, automate processes and focus investments, is at the foundation of being an agile, successful and customer-focused organisation. The challenge, for organisations all over the world, is to refine data analytics strategies to focus on the outcomes that matter.

With the right analytics and AI consulting services, you can unlock business intelligence that leads to operational excellence, enhanced customer experience, improved employee satisfaction, and sustained business growth.

Not all data is equal

While it’s important to collect and analyse data, it’s also important to collect the right data. By replacing duplicated, replicated and manipulated data with a single version of the truth, you’ll be empowered with data you can trust at every touchpoint.

AI and analytics solutions focus on creating a centralised data source that provides easy access to accurate, compliant data, to enable consistent reporting, streamlined processes, and richer experiences for your employees and customers. But for some organisations, this is easier said than done. The answer? You can choose from two options:

  1. Ensure you have a data expert within your team
  2. Partner with an experienced consultant

How to make better data-driven decisions

So, what’s the secret? Making better data-driven decisions should start with a strategic plan of action that ensures you gain access to the data you actually need, and that meets your objectives. Importantly, you also need the tools or expertise to interpret the data to help you make the right decisions.

1. Identify business objectives

Understanding your organisation’s strategic goals should be the first step. This could include increasing sales numbers, website traffic or brand awareness. This helps the process of choosing metrics that influence data-driven decisions.

2. Survey business teams for sources of data

For business success, it’s important you gain input from people across your organisation to understand short and long term goals. These inputs help inform the questions for analysis as well as how to prioritise certified data sources.

3. Collect and prepare data for analysis

Accessing quality, trusted data can be a challenge if your organisation’s information sits in many disconnected sources. However, once an understanding of the breadth of data sources across your organisation is gained, data preparation can begin.

4. Develop insights

Critical thinking with data involves finding insights and communicating them in a useful, engaging way. Visual analytics is a great approach for asking and answering questions of data; to discover opportunities or risks that impact success or problem-solving.

5. Act on and share your insights

Once an insight is discovered, you can take action and share it with others for collaboration. Highlighting key insights with informative text and interactive visualisations can impact decisions and help staff, at all levels, make more-informed actions every day.

Ongoing digital transformation is now possible with organisational data — in real time

​​Drilling down the benefits of data-driven decision making

While we’ve looked at the main end benefit of data-driven decision making, (in a nutshell – business success), there are many you may not have considered, such as:

1. Faster decisions

Data-driven decision making can enable your team to make faster decisions, based on hard data. Having this ability is a major advantage for your organisation, especially in a competitive market.

2. Efficient spending

By investing in a robust digital transformation and expert consultants to help you collect and analyse data effectively, the end benefits can outweigh the costs, as you’ll have the agility to stay ahead of your competition in a fast-moving market.

3. Continuous improvement

To make informed decisions you need to collect data. While doing so, you can gain incredible insights into your business processes, which can help you improve your product faster and increase efficiency.

4. Collaborative decision making

Before data was collected, most organisations relied on senior, experienced leaders. And, sometimes, their decisions were simply based on their opinions. (But let’s keep that to ourselves!) When a decision is based on data analysis and metrics, it can be discussed openly and collaboratively.

5. Confident decisions

You can make more accurate, confident and measured decisions when you have hard data to back you. For example, if a survey shows that the majority of your users/shoppers would like a certain feature or product, you could confidently decide to implement it as soon as possible.

Leverage the power of data with a digital solutions expert

In summary, it’s better for your organisation to rely on data when making business decisions. If you don’t have any data that relates to the decisions you need to make, look for official sources such as reports or studies that can help you make the best decisions. If you don’t have the experts in your team to drive this initiative, you should consider partnering with a trusted consultant, like Nexon.

At Nexon we believe a 360-degree view of business information from anywhere in your organisation is the fundamental building block for efficient operations. Consolidated, organised data drives data accuracy and can help your organisation effectively manage performance, while meeting any compliance requirements.

Nexon consults with you to define what metrics are important to measure and which are not. We help you determine which insights are needed to make better data-driven decisions and substantiate them with compelling, visual data stories.

Our digital solutions team simplifies the complex, and delivers trusted insights for fast, accurate decisions. They design intelligent data solutions based on how your data is acquired, consumed, managed, governed, and integrated.

As a Microsoft certified partner, the Nexon team has both the certification and the technical expertise to deliver innovative digital solutions to drive outcomes for your organisation. You’ll be in good hands with Nexon.

Like to know more? Get in touch.

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