The Three Steps of Data Usage
The current business environment is filled with romance stories about data. It’s like sex during that time back in grade school when everyone started developing physically, ‘everyone is talking about it and almost everyone has no idea what the hell it is supposed to be.’ The industry is just packed with data this, data that conversations.
This can be very scary for new adopters or even those who haven’t thought about the role of data in their businesses. How do you start to leverage your data in the midst of all this scary AI, Machine Learning and all sorts of wizardry talk? Mind you, with a very small budget.
The data industry is now a collection of volcanoes of scary buzzwords. To do anything useful, one must first disregard all the sexiness and approach the problem like a stupid person. {No assumptions or getting hot for ideas}
Data, unlike very many experts like to show, is not scary at all. At this point in your business, you are most interested in tasks/processes that you can adopt that can quickly start having an impact on your business.
Below is a series of steps that I think are simple and healthy guidelines to finally adopting those data strategies you’ve been hearing about.
Inquiry: The asking and answering of questions
This is the first step that you should take in regards to getting value from your data. Why did condition A happen as it did? Why did we only sell 4000 products? Is it because we ran out of inventory? Why did our May sales go south? Was it because a quarter of our salesforce went on leave? Looking at past company performance, there are a million and one questions that can be asked and easily answered by past data. More often than not, those answers usually lead to more questions and more answers which still lead to yet more questions.
At this stage, you require basic BI and reporting modules that allow and help you to analyze past data to provide insights.
What is the benefit of this? Using the benefit of very well-informed hindsight, you can use the lessons learned to streamline those past processes and increase efficiency, reduce costs, etc.
I also like to call this process, keeping up with your business.
The Present: Being Smart about it
After catching up with your business, the next step is keeping up with it.
For example: How much is the current demand? Is your current inventory able to keep up with this demand? How is your staff leave allocation affecting your company output? If your company has a monthly target of 1,000,000 dollars and you’re at week 2, can you achieve that based on your current trajectory and performance?
This step is very vital. This is where you regain the steering wheel to your business. It is during this stage that you should get back on top of things. By utilizing the improved processes from the previous stage and paying close attention to your data as it comes, things will start to flow pretty efficiently.
The basic BI modules are a huge asset at this stage also. Self-service analytical tools also prove invaluable to help cater to highly mutating analytical needs.
The Future: Overtake your Business
Why settle for just being on top of things? Your systems and protocols are great, but are you ready for changes? How quickly can you adapt?
You now need to be in the business of solving problems before they can even become problems.
How does this work? By doing things such as forecasting your sales based on past data. This can help you prepare to satisfy the predicted demand. You can know how to plan your employees’ leave-days to reduce shortage of staff or even how to run your inventory.
Are you planning to introduce new products to the market? At this stage, you can predict product demand based on data on related products and the targeted market.
It is at this stage that high-end technologies like Machine Learning, Streaming and AI come to play.
The whole essence of this stage is becoming the master of tomorrow.
Conclusion
One of the biggest mistakes that new-adopters do is trying to skip the above steps and heading for the third one. The third option is an expensive option that takes a lot of resources financially and energy-wise. Most of the decisions to be taken are highly dependent on knowledge learned from the previous two steps.
A deep dive into the future without the benefit of hindsight is just like diving into the Pacific without gear or any knowledge about the sea. It is tantamount to suicide, very expensive suicide.
While followed well, the above steps have proven to help businesses grow at favorable speeds with great integration and seamless adoption.
