It appears absurd to even think that an intangible concept like ‘data’ could be more precious than a long-established and indispensable commodity like oil. But it’s almost certainly true.

What Data Means to Business

We often associate data with collecting and storing customer information (name, address, phone number, email id, and/or other relevant fields) enabling a sales team to reach out to customers for promotions or to convey an upcoming sale and/or discounts.

Today, the use of data goes beyond filling excel fields.

In the era of digitalisation, data is the new currency. Data is power. It is the lifeblood of any business and the key to unlocking a prosperous future.

Data is helping organizations improve their processes, reduce costs, save time, closely understand buyer personas, optimise sales funnel and effectively measure marketing performance. Without it, the development would halt.

Let’s understand this with the help of an example.

For decades assembling extensive amounts of data for medical use has proven expensive and time-consuming. With the advent of new technology, it has become easier not only to collect such data but also to create extensive healthcare reports and convert them into relevant insights that can be used to provide better care. This includes understanding a patient’s history, medications, course of treatments and more.

Strategic & efficient use of data in healthcare can eliminate human errors, significantly reduce the cost of treatment, predict epidemic outbreaks, dodge preventable illnesses and help improve the quality of life in general.

For the hospital, it could mean smart staffing, adequate allocation of finances, improved supply-chain function, funding research, enhanced security- the list is endless.

All this can only be possible with a data management strategy in place.

What is a Data Management Strategy?

Simply put, a data management strategy is the practice of collecting, storing, managing, sharing, protecting and using data to accomplish business goals.

A meticulously designed data management process can generate the following benefits for your business.

• Save time & costs
• Overall improvement in productivity
• A better understanding of buyer personas
• Predict the next move
• Enhanced accuracy of decisions

How to Create an Effective Data Management Strategy

To leverage data to make informed business decisions, every organization must begin with these 5 steps.

Identify business goals

Your business could potentially waste valuable time and resources by accumulating, storing, and examining the wrong types of data. It usually helps to ask questions like:

• What are your business’s overall objectives?
• What type of data is needed to meet these objectives?
• What other insights and info are required to make the desired progress?

Focus on what’s crucial and create your data management strategy. When your business goal is the core of all functions, these priorities will help dictate processes, tools, governance and more.

Create Powerful Data Processes

Now that you have prioritized data for use, the next step is to establish processes for collecting, preparing, storing and distributing the data. Identify the owners and stakeholders for each of the required data management activities. Consider these set of questions;

Collect

• What will be the various data sources?
• How will the data be collected?
• Is access to both external and internal assets required?

Prepare

• How will you clean and convert raw data to prepare it for analysis?
• How will you identify incomplete or disparate data?
• What will be the guidelines for naming data and documenting lineage?

Store

• Where will you store data?
• How will you keep your data secure?
• What happens in case of a data breach?

Analyze & Distribute

• Which teams/ departments need access to collaborate?
• How can access to data and analysis be made easier?
• How will the team communicate any data insights?

Find the Apt Technology

As you run through the questions mentioned above, it becomes evident that selecting the right tools, platforms, or technology solutions is vital to building a data management strategy. Evaluate carefully about which hardware or software you need to establish a superior data infrastructure.

Establish Data Governance

The data doesn’t only bring giant benefits but also a big responsibility. Don’t skip on data governance. Create policies and procedures for proper data usage.

Establishing data governance ensures that data is used accurately and consistently across the organization to meet its objectives.

Outsourcing Data Management Strategy

Often the biggest obstacle in leveraging data to its fullest is that teams/departments using the data are not data experts. Using data effectively goes beyond looking and reading statistics. Should you find your team/department struggling in this particular domain, it’s best to support your data initiatives by outsourcing your data management strategy.

Datafortune For Data Management Strategy

Get the most from your data by partnering with us.

Businesses of all sizes have partnered with datafortune for driving innovative marketing strategies and growth.

Our team of expert data ninjas can help your business streamline the process just so your teams get the information they need when and where they need it— to drive business decisions.

To know more visit our contact us page or get in touch with us today at Info@datafortune.com