We are now living in a world where data is regarded as a highly desirable asset. Fact. The seed has truly been planted and the world is now reacting. With consumers now becoming more and more aware of the value of their data, legal protections such as GDPR and other laws such as the updated Data Protection Act have been swiftly introduced over the past few years. This surge of power has given consumers more rights and say so over how their data is kept and used. However, it is data like this which is being gathered, carefully analysed and then ploughed back into the R&D cycle whilst ‘smartly’ serving to the consumers’ wants and needs within their ever changing market. There is proof of this with products and services becoming ‘smarter’ in reacting to consumer demand. This is truly data intelligence at it’s best.
Businesses are using data more than ever to understand their customers and to maintain or increase their market share. Those businesses who fail to embrace or to even acknowledge data as a core business asset, will surely be left behind.
Data As An Asset
It has now widely become known to us that the tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon collect huge volumes of data on their customers and in turn leverage their business asset – data. They do this brilliantly whilst using tightly honed business models which serve both the business and the consumer.
Data monetisation is and has become big business in the corporate world. Not only are companies creating value by leveraging their data and responding to insights from the data, but they are also selling their data to third parties as a by-product. This makes it even more of a lucrative business. This was proven when Facebook temporarily blocked Australian users from sharing or accessing news on their platform. This came in response to a proposed law which could see tech giants such as Facebook and Google pay publishers for news content in Australia.
However, it is not only businesses who plan to remain the key players on monetising from data. Everyday consumers have now been given the opportunity to hold and sell their data as an asset. Therefore, with more and more of these ‘self-monetising’ consumer companies popping up, it seems like data monetisation is likely to be filtering down to the masses.
A Data Culture
Creating a data culture within an organisation requires strong communication techniques about the value of factual data and how it can and will be used to improve all areas of the business from marketing to procurement. This championing of a reliance on data should come from the top of an organisation and be filtered through to every day operational staff.
In order to create a strong data culture, it is vital that there is strong data literacy present in the company where individuals are encouraged to use and appreciate data analytics as a fundamental tool. With this brings training and a strong willingness to extract data and share these insights throughout the organisation.
The setting up of an organisation’s data infrastructure is also needed in order to create a defined organised approach to a sophisticated echo system. This system is required to deal with the collection of data to deciding how the data will be stored and communicated.
Data Strategy
We are now in the digital age (also known also as the information age) and as we become more knowledgeable about the value of data, it is important that businesses create some sort of plan of action. Having a data strategy in place enables a business to realign their business operations to their strategic business model by leveraging their internal data to the highest of their ability.
Establishing data which is needed and not needed is a particularly important strategic phase of the data strategy and should involve a number of key senior individuals to establish goal congruence. Once the data is collected, the importance then becomes about processing the data in the right way. Serving the right type of data to the right individuals in the right way is one of the key objectives of a data strategy and it requires a skillset which is highly regarded amongst businesses today.
Due to the changing environment, it is a must that the data strategy must be revisited. A business may find that new developments are required on their initial business questions or that there are now further changes to their technology landscape – opening opportunities for both innovation and improvement.
Conclusion
The reliance on data has now become the norm and this reality is only yet to increase as data intelligence becomes ever more dominant within the digital age.
Alpha Hale Consulting is a boutique management consultancy who offer a data strategy service to businesses who want to achieve their full potential. Get in touch at www.alphahale.com to see how we can work with your business.
