In today’s corporate world, the data is considered to be the basis of taking critical decisions. The importance of data, which turns into information, is increasing day by day. Big corporates are spending
Small businesses are still reluctant to adopt this latest trend as they don’t have big budgets to spend on big data software which provides solutions based on
Why do you need data?
Why do we need data? This is the major question always asked by the decision makers. The data is the essence of every strategic decision making. It gives the historical information about readings, trends, tastes and figures. If it is used properly and wisely, the decision makers can forecast their future trends, sales figures and devise their strategy to achieve those realistic targets.
You do trust on your guts but at the same you time you also take help from data as it will give you a realistic picture about the decisions that were taken in the past. The future strategy should be based on the utilization of the information gathered from the data acquired through different tools just like free quiz creators online.
Use of data
Another important aspect is how you use the data. It’s totally up to you to decide what data matters and what doesn’t. Like to judge website traffic, you will have loads of information and data available, but the availability of the data is one thing and its utilization is another. Below are some of the data metrics which might be important to you.
- Web Traffic
- Which sources send the most traffic to your website
- Which people are most watched by people on your website
- How fast people leave your website, also known as bounce rate
- Sales
- Which is your best or worst selling product
- At what price people respond to your product
- What was the peek season for your product
- Marketing
- Which marketing channels convert the most number of leads and sales
- Which marketing channels give the best ROI
All of the above-mentioned information and data will guide you in making critical decisions about your strategy towards your website, your sales pitches, and marketing plans.
Decision making
Now this is the most important step in using your data in the most efficient way. Experts believe that data is useful only when you put it to work or use it wisely. If we extract from above example, 45% of your web traffic which comes from your guest blogging efforts is useless, unless if you don’t utilize that information to attract even more traffic to your website.
No doubt, data is a powerful and a handy tool and can help you in taking well-informed strategic decisions for your business. It is important that you don’t completely ignore your intuition but try to create balance between the two.
In simple words we can say that you only manage what you can measure. The use of data are now even more important in the Human Resource departments as managers and their teams get evaluated and measured on the basis of the data extracted from their performances. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is one such prime example.
If you have something that cannot be quantified, it is still better to have qualitative measures rather than ending up with an
It is also important that you must retain your data even if you don’t see any use of it in the near future. You never know when this data becomes a gold mine for you and companies start contacting you for that piece of information. To promote data culture, you need to create awareness about the importance of data. The best thing is to make data essence of every decision and should spread the
No data, No progress! Without data, no metrics can be done, no intelligence can be performed and of course no analysis can be made as there will be no numbers to support these. Big corporates value the importance of their business data. Given the advancement in technology, it is now easier to gather, maintain and utilize vast amount of data. The important thing how you bring these numbers into play and this is what define cultures within your organization about their use.
Most organizations opt for a conservative approach as old mindsets and cultures create hindrance in the usage of data to its potential. So, to reap the benefits, it is very important that everyone in the organization must understand the importance and usage of the numbers. They will reap the benefits at all their individual departments as well as in the organization as a whole.
The first step is the collection of data as this is the main input which directly effects the outcome i.e. decisions you will take on the basis of this information. The data is not important in measuring your success but it is even more important to track the reasons, steps behind the failure of your product, project or decisions. If you have data to use, you can easily prove the basis behind all your decisions. With historical trends data available, you will have the opportunity to alter your decision with that experience.
For example, in health insurance proposal renewal, you will only justify your price if your quotation is backed by the data available in preceding year’s policy. You will have data to show what was client’s loss ratios, what disease is disturbing their employees and what should be the precautionary tests/investigations or training the client needs in the organization for his employees.
The data is the most powerful tool and can pay
It is pertinent to mention here that the executives or
As Artificial Intelligence is growing, the need and importance of data is even more now. You must get results on the basis of data and with artificial intelligence technology coming in, most of the processes will become automated, thereby making it easier for the decision makers to make informed decisions based on the past data.