Modern Data for a Modern Pandemic

The question “what’s new?” used to garner responses centered around the meeting we just left, what we had for dinner the other night, the funniest thing our kid said the other day, even what TV show we are currently engrossed in. Who knew that now the answer to that question would elicit a response about a global health crisis that has impacted us all?

Never in our wildest dreams did any of us consider that a global pandemic, COVID-19, would fundamentally change every aspect of our lives, but it sure did, and here we are.

As a result of this global crisis, it’s hard to reconcile all that has changed, and what the future might hold. The ripple effects continue, and we as communities and individuals strive to seek answers.

Luckily to our benefit, data has proven to be a valuable ally in the search for those answers. From the latest research being conducted to find a vaccine, to understanding how best to reopen entire countries, data is being used now more than ever in ways we have only dreamed about.

Over the past year, Slalom has developed and released a transformational framework called the Modern Culture of Data. While this framework was not specifically designed to respond to a global pandemic, it does answer the call of various businesses to put data at the forefront of everything we do. From reimagining outdated processes to predicting the next trend, data is central and absolute to the way we make decisions in a modern world.

Ways of Working

Overarching our Modern Culture of Data framework is the Ways of Working element. I believe we can all relate to the many ways the global pandemic has changed our ways of working moving ahead.

Ways of Working encompasses core business aspects such as how an organization operates, the tools used by business users to act upon data, basic operational processes, even talent development and driving behaviors of staff. In light of our new non-traditional ways of working, it makes sense for organizations to shed legacy methods of attracting new business and to embrace a model of data centricity that ushers in greater ease of data use at a lower cost.

Let’s take a real-world scenario. We have a few prospective clients aligned to our communication and electronics vertical that label themselves as “parts and smarts”. Traditionally, the parts and smarts industry are mom-and-pop shops and have seen long term success implementing fire prevention and security systems for commercial sites.

As you can imagine, this is required, regulated work for any real estate development. Most business is gained via referrals and not very well tracked, causing data about prospective and current customers to exist in the minds of shop owners. Historically, growth has been nominal but fair no matter the economic climate since these types of systems are required to be installed for safety reasons.

“By introducing new ways of working, our business can not only access all available data, but surface data issues so we can correct it and target customers effectively.” — Sales team

In the past, a core business driver for growth in the parts and smarts industry has been establishing more relationships — more relationships equal more new business. However, with the advent of lower cost methods of data retrieval and access, coupled with the fact that COVID-19 has limited person-to-person interaction, shop owners now have to re-evaluate their traditional approaches to data usage or lack thereof.

It has been notoriously difficult to generate, cultivate, track, and follow-up with prospective clients given these new constraints. However, by introducing modern tools with a lower cost of operation, shop owners and sales staff can now rapidly access the data they need to prospect and track customer sales data. Exposing all available data surfaces any underlying issues so teams can effectively correct the data and gain more customer relationships. Further, by increasing data access and retrieval methods, shop owners can delegate more to sales teams, thus upending the core business drivers to focus more broadly on deepening established relationships instead of growing a larger network.

Pivoting from here, and in a different light, another vital element of the Modern Culture of Data framework is Data Literacy.

Data Literacy

Not only is it crucial to serve data to business users that is valid, trustworthy, and accurate, but it’s critical to ensure that teams have a data mindset and the skills they need to drive action. The divide between a fixed data mindset and a growth mindset is widely apparent in organizations that have existed for many generations.

And honestly, what better time to introduce this shift in mindset than a global phenomenon that is changing the very fabric of how we conduct business?

To see this in action, let’s take another example of a client we recently had the privilege of connecting with during a cloud enablement workshop. This client is a multi-generational firm that resides in the commercial business solutions industry — think printers, scanners, and associated business machines. Being multi-generational, this client has endured vast shifts in the way business has been conducted over the years. Historically, their employee turnover is quite low with the average tenure hovering at about 18 years.

Now again, as you can imagine, with such a long typical tenure, many employees are comfortable interacting with and using data in a set manner and for a specific purpose.

With the proliferation of more modern tools, and the presence of COVID-19 changing how we work, this client realized they needed to change, and do so quickly. Fortunately, they had almost every data tool you could imagine at their disposal. What needed to change here was the mindset people had around using data. Most importantly, a shift from reading data on a report to asking questions of the data in the form of a dashboard was key.

“The business is starting to ask more data questions, and IT realizes they need a better way of accessing data, we just don’t know how this translates into a technical solution.” — Commercial business solutions client

We took an integrated approach when providing a solution to this client to help them become more data literate. Starting with the overall vision for the use of data, we distilled a data strategy blended with people, enablement, and modern technology to shift the mindset of business users to be more data savvy. The most rewarding part of this journey was building a level of client trust that allowed for us to challenge the mindset of users candidly and constructively in a safe place free of judgement. This was the only way to instill the message of asking data-centric questions and to ensure the workshop was effective.

In the end, the client walked away with actionable next steps that helped to shape how they start to think about and enable a future where everyone can use data to drive insights and take actions. Furthermore, since the workshop was driven by modern cloud means and the impact of COVID-19 forced us to work virtually, we were able to demonstrate how data literacy works even in a remote capacity.

So, knowing what we know now, where do we go from here?

The future is limitless, and we know data is absolute. We may not be able to predict the next COVID-19, but we can always turn to data to give us a starting point. How we interact with data, the questions we ask of it, the ways we interpret it, and the stories we tell ourselves from it can allow us to weather unplanned events like this one and make possible a future where we can get ahead of the curve. These are not lofty aspirations, rather modern and futuristic ideals that provide a compass for us to march toward. And, as with all things, we’ll get there together.

Oliver Asmus is a Practice Area Lead out of Slalom’s New Jersey office. He specializes in data strategy, architecture, and governance and helps clients across financial services, telecom, and retail industries make better use of their data.

Speak with Oliver and other Data & Analytics practitioners at Slalom by reaching out directly or learn more at slalom.com.

This is the first post in our Modern Culture of Data COVID-19 series. Be sure to check out the second post by my colleague, Amanda Lintelman. There will be four posts in this series, released a week apart. Be sure to check them all out and reach out to learn more.