From Data Chaos to Data Clarity: The Power of Integration
A few weekends ago, I was catching up with an old friend currently leading a D2C organization. They are category leaders in the segment competing against Amazon and Flipkart. Interestingly, one of the problems he brought up was how they are under-committing their delivery SLAs for their end customers. On probing further, I understood that their logistics partners typically deliver the consignment much earlier than what is committed to their customers. However, the brand did not integrate its partner’s logistics dashboards; hence, it just gave a generic SLA based on historical data.
My friend recognized this issue and raised it with the engineering team to enable the integration. Unfortunately, this could only be accommodated two quarters down the line. Their engineering team understands that this is a simple task, but once the integration is set up, maintaining it would require additional bandwidth, which they can only afford further down the line.
Similar themes have been echoed through my other client interactions since I joined Hevo. A FinTech leader who wants to avoid the headache of owning the data pipelines in his quest to enable customized dashboards for their partners in the lending space. A logistics CTO was trying to enable their ground staff with near-real-time insights and improve their operational efficiencies. Irrespective of the industry, geography, or end goal, there were four common observations:
- Operational efficiency is being undersold to the end customer; this impacts customer delight.
- Operational partners share valuable information which is not integrated, often due to various challenges.
- Engineering teams have several ongoing projects running the business, and data integration is often low on their priority.
- Even when a case is made for data integration to be prioritized, the engineering team needs to factor in valuable bandwidth to maintain the integrations.
Businesses invest a lot to build and enhance their operational efficiencies. Yet, they face a challenge in getting this acknowledged by the end customer due to missing or sub-optimal data integration practices. Imagine a student who massively improved his performance, yet his parents still see his old report cards. In this age where brands fight each other for customer attention, underselling value is a surefire way to lose customers to competitors.
Data integration is often considered a low-value task for engineers because it can be time-consuming to build pipelines manually. In most cases, multiple sources are involved, and ensuring that the data is accurate and up-to-date is a significant challenge. This can be tedious and labor-intensive, especially if the data sources are not well-organized or easy to access. This is especially true in fast-paced organizations where engineering bandwidth is already spread thin with multiple high-priority projects. In these cases, data integration may be pushed to the bottom of the priority list, even if it is crucial to the business’s success.
One solution to this problem is to invest in a data integration platform that can handle the integration and maintenance of multiple data sources, freeing up valuable engineering resources to focus on more critical tasks. Tangible business outcomes can be achieved by enabling operational data views and dashboards for line managers, end customers, and department heads. For example, integration with logistics partners can enable near-real-time dashboards for D2C businesses to track consignments and SLAs.
In the long run, investing in a data integration platform can also help businesses make data-driven decisions, improve operational efficiencies, and drive revenue growth. By having access to real-time data from various sources, businesses can identify areas for improvement, optimize processes, and make informed decisions that drive growth. Young organizations can avoid technical debt by adopting these SaaS offerings and go toe to toe with incumbent behemoths.
Hevo Data is solving for Data Integration, an essential yet non-core technology layer. Our specialization in handling data, the availability of 150+ integrations, and technical know-how better suit organizations over building in-house pipelines. From the primary purpose of increasing speed and efficiency in data integration to the higher-level goals of enabling better business decision-making, we at Hevo Data are trying to redefine how business data is approached and treated.
Take a look at our careers page if this mission resonates with you. I am up for a virtual coffee if you want to learn more.
