We have entered a period of profound change after more than ten years of steady expansion, which presents risk as well as an opportunity for businesses. We must rediscover our capacity to achieve savings while simultaneously identifying the disruptive opportunities that uncertain situations tend to create. We can no longer rely on linear revenue growth predicated on an increasing economy powered by inexpensive capital. In certain periods, great businesses flourish while average ones collapse. The odds are against us.
The most successful businesses are realizing that:
Because of the fierce competition, every move must be made with a sense of urgency in order to produce a successful conclusion that increases revenue and profit while lowering risk. Data now has a more important function than ever. Insights into customer behavior, just-in-time inventory and capacity management, and a peek into each department’s crevices (billing collections, procurement, and beyond) for savings that could matter are all provided. Most significantly, data drives innovation by enabling businesses to search through various sources to uncover new opportunities.
The true benefit of data analytics
To make everyday strategic and tactical decisions more quickly and effectively, data analytics is used. For instance, real-time, granular sales data linked with live inventory data gives the organization a far greater picture of how to spend money. Further, the ability to plan OPEX in real-time (rather than quarterly) with current sales figures, headcount data, and other disparate data sources offers a much better picture, enabling not only C-level executives but everyone who can now access the data to manage the business.
These were all in separate systems before to the development of cloud data warehousing, which made decision-making less informed and more reactive. How many of us remember the abrupt, brutal budget management that would come down from above and say “no more hiring this quarter”? That was bad for business and awful for culture.
Finding value in data requires more than just analysis (which is a whole other benefit). It’s a comprehensive discovery process that calls for perceptive analysts, inquisitive business users, and executives that pose strategic, targeted queries.
To begin with, we must make it possible for employees at all organizational levels to enter the proper data. (Garbage in, garbage out, as the saying goes.) We are aware of a company that shifted from “reporting” (batch data) to event-driven (don’t look at data just because it’s Friday; look at data because it changed substantially and new decisions need to be taken) after staking 25% of its company bonus on the quality of data. Finally, it involves creating new models for the future and discovering/improving new data sources (enrichment) so that you are better prepared.
Ironically, the next revolutionary data analytics business product will, for the first time, be in the hands of many people across the enterprise, not just those of a data scientist and some top executives, even if it will likely be someone in the C-suite who approves it. And even better, the decision-makers will have access to the actual data rather than a cadre of executives who only have access to abbreviated material frequently displayed in visualization tools.
The ability to claim that their greatest business decisions are “data-driven” is prized by many in the corporate world. There are far too many people that utilize data analytics to support or demonstrate their preconceived strategic initiatives or business models. This is a shoddy implementation of data analytics that falls short of a thorough analysis and identification of data to show true trends and enable the best business decisions.
To unlock the full potential of data analytics, enormous amounts of data must be quickly and in real time accessible across many corporate departments, including sales, product development, supply chain logistics, CRM, and marketing, in order to promote collaboration and uncover trends, new revenue opportunities, and best practices for successful outcomes.
A broad range of business experts using real-time big data and analytics
For non-technical business customers, the rise of no-code/low-code apps and software has changed the game. Every organization, regardless of industry, is evolving into a data-driven enterprise, and a wide range of business professionals now have access to no-code data and analytics.
The future of employment for marketers, analysts, product managers, and other important decision-makers outside the data science team is being changed by no-code/low-code.
Technology that changes the game calls for democratization
Letter writing and mail delivery were replaced by the telegraph available at the railroad station, which was then superseded by the telephone, which was then superseded by smart, personal mobile phones with their plethora of communications capabilities, including email access and text messaging, in the end.
Similar to how computing began with big machines in a room in a business, it subsequently developed into personal computers, then laptops, and finally computers on small mobile personal devices.
The use of these latter technologies grew rapidly due to their accessibility and the addition of applications that foster collaboration. A satisfying result of the “everyone’s utilizing it” dynamic is stickiness, steady new sales growth, and repeat business.
We are traveling the same data path. Over the past 15 years, the basics have altered (cloud computing, declining storage costs, diverse new data sets and rapid data growth, cloud databases, data marketplaces). What’s left is developing the “consumer” experience for an analytics feature set that has previously been rather technical.
Data analytics bottlenecks can be avoided if new tools and solutions encouraging the democratization of “big data” get off to a wise start by adhering to the following principles:
Utilize the current technological stack to enter the industry
It is advantageous to have it compatible with an existing platform that is effectively utilized by many users if you’re planning to introduce a new technology, product, solution, or tool that will provide significant advantages. The goal of building a tech stack is to increase performance, security, productivity, and efficiency throughout the website or app development process. Developers can design a product much more quickly, with fewer obstacles, and forecast how much time and money the project could require with the correct equipment and technology at their disposal.
The tech stack developers choose will affect your product’s functionality both now and in the future, as well as how easy it will be to maintain and scale, how well it will perform, how and where the data inside it will be kept (locally or in the cloud), and other factors.
Make sure your product works well in the field and can be reasonably maintained
The running-on-flat tire illustration comes to mind. There is much to be said for the assurance of driving on a flat after you’ve had a puncture, but if you want my advice, skip the run-flats, wrote one person who was operating a BMW with such a tire. Term-flat is excellent for their one-time, temporary convenience, but in the long run, they’re probably more hassle than they’re worth.
Verify that your solution can run on existing infrastructure. Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of Tesla (and now owner of Twitter), set out to “accelerate the advent of sustainable mobility by bringing attractive mass-market electric automobiles to market as soon as feasible” when he founded his cutting-edge automobile company. The foundation of Tesla’s lucrative business strategy is this mission. For the roads to change, Tesla is not required.
Find and stay away from doubters
Do your research on the businesses and industries you think you can persuade the most that the advantages of your entry are obvious and embraced. Have they responded slowly or rapidly to changes in IT infrastructure? Have they been among the forerunners in making investments in cutting-edge technologies or, like sheep, have they waited and lagged behind? In a funny television commercial, Larry David, the creator of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” portrays the aggravation of having to deal with doubters.
He’s irritable. As a result, he was cast as the “I hate it person” throughout history – when the wheel was invented, the fork, the toilet, coffee, democracy, the light bulb, space exploration, and electric automobiles. The motto of the campaign, designed by crypto firm FTX, is “Don’t be like Larry.”
Yes, there are skeptics in technology and other businesses where fresh techniques are proposed to win the day. Naysayers are people who are reluctant to see the world in a new light; they are those who fail to appreciate the potential that a new solution provides. They endanger corporate success and may even hasten an organization’s demise.
