19 May Becoming Data Driven
IT Companies
1. Every Company is a Data Company.
The realm of data is no longer an abstract concept relevant only to the tech industry, it has become inextricably linked with every facet of the global economy – many economic activities and IT Companies spesifically, could not function without its input.
Data aggregation, known more formally as ‘Big Data’, provides large quantities of information that can be further analyzed and dissected to provide companies with an understanding of industry trends and actionable insights – an application that has become the basis of competition and the platform by which the quality of goods and services of industries can be increased.
The successful implementation of Big Data is becoming the industry standard by which companies either outperform their peers or get stuck treading water. Newer companies will attempt to leverage data to innovate upon strategies, compete, and capture value.
2. Focus on awareness and the results will follow
Big Data’s efficacy is self-evident, however, the more important question to ask is: How can Big Data strategies be applied successfully to my business?
Understanding Big Data’s scope is an important first step. Although it can provide all manner of information, from streamlining product inventories to better understanding consumer preferences, it will be useless unless your business objectives are taken into consideration.
Once your objectives are defined, the next step is to implement applicable metrics.
3. Getting into the Data
So, which metrics will provide me the answers to these questions?
Here are some examples as to how data strategies can be successfully leveraged (and the metrics used to evaluate them):
Creating Information Transparency.
Many organizations still have significant amounts of information that have not been recorded digitally. Bringing offline data into an organization’s network can make company processes become more efficient and reduce redundancies.
To accomplish these aims, a company would adopt ‘Process Metrics’. Process metrics evaluate business processes, set improvement goals, and measure progress against those goals. Process Metrics provide visibility into the effectiveness of the changes they make to business processes.
Transactional Data
As more and more data becomes available to an organization, they can collect and review performance information such as workflow processes and even employee sick days. Some companies may even collect and analyze data to make more informed management decisions.
For this kind of data, a company would look at ‘Workload Metrics’. This type of reporting looks at quantifiable information: the number of transactions registered, the number of people trained, hours expended, resource utilization, etc.
Develop better products and services
For companies involved in manufacturing, products can be outfitted with sensors that detect product malfunction and transmit necessary maintenance information to prevent future failures.
Manufacturing companies that use sensors on their devices could use ‘Compliance Metrics’ to measure the performance of their products through activity reports. Compliance metrics can be evaluated against company goals over time and give information into risk exposure (e.g., what is the compliance status of a company’s products, and does that change over time).
4. Engage with your Data
Methods and techniques are wholly dependent on what a company wants to evaluate, however, much will depend on which outcomes a company is seeking.
Nevertheless, developing a framework to assess data is as important as the data itself. Here is an example of how to manually process data:
- Find as many products or services as possible to measure.
- Cross-examine with several categories:
- Individual metrics
- Specific categories
- The whole
- Compare results across products and services for consistency.
- Compare results to uncover gaps: is something not being measured that should be?
Look into other frameworks to compare your process, such as a support frameworks or user experience.
5. Conclusion
Although ‘data driven’ processes are effective for businesses, they can be quite exhausting to implement manually. The best way to navigate data analytics is by using business intelligence software. Telx Computers, a Miami-based business intelligence analytics company, offers an integrated analytics platform where users can simultaneously aggregate, display, and report on company data.
Having a company provide the framework for data analysis helps business owners save time, money, and resources – freeing up time for decision-making and action-taking.
See how Telx Computers can help make the most of your information. Contact us for more, today!