It’s not about data

Many organizations are being hastily pushed into digital transformation, to become data-driven, to achieve competitive differentiation and the necessary advantage to thrive in a rapidly evolving complex business landscape.

The effort to take advantage of emergent new business innovations, of advances in digitization, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things or robotics, can lead to miss sight of the essential.

Data-driven business means business-driven data

It’s not about data, it’s about business. Business is the driver, data and what it produces is the enabler.

The success of any data related initiative is measured on how it impacts business performance.

· It is measured on how it impacts customer and experience loyalty.

· It is measured on how it impacts offer and innovation.

· It is measured on how it impacts operation efficiency.

· It is measured on how it impacts processes, minimizing inefficiencies and reducing costs.

· It is measured on how in impacts risk and compliance.

The true measure of success is the quality of the organization’s decision processes; the organizations best able to make the best insight-driven decisions faster will gain the competitive edge.

The transformation process that leads to a data driven organization must be wholeheartedly supported on the business strategy and objectives.

Data strategy is business strategy - As any other asset in the organization, data’s purpose is to create business value, so any data strategy must be oriented towards the organization's strategic priorities and key business objectives.

Business Use Cases -Business needs determine how data may be used to deliver those priorities and objectives.

Start small, think big - Start with a small, targeted initiatives, where the business impact and value of data can be clearly identified.

Measure and communicate - Set up a set of metrics and communicating them across the organization, a success story, that will act as a motor to leverage the replication of that story in other business units.

Business driven - All the program and initiatives must be driven and oriented by the business units.

Agile mindset - Apply an agile development mindset to all this process, start with a minimum viable solution and iterate, allow that visible results are presented in short time lapses.

Project graveyards are cluttered with data initiatives that did not deliver clear ROI.

With a strong leadership and business focus, data initiatives will pay for themselves by adding real ROI to business initiatives.