i3 - May/June 2020 - 36

Business

By Scott Steinberg

FO RWA R D ST R AT EG I E S

How to Make Better
Business Decisions

can leverage them to more accurately
predict production runs, while technology providers can use these tools to
enhance service, maximize uptime and
eliminate productivity bottlenecks.
It pays to focus on the human eleata is the lifeblood of successful businesses. But
ments of working with information as
with studies by IDC suggesting that less than 10%
well. Even more so given that global
of relevant information is being used to enhance
research by the Data Literacy Project
shows that only 25% of business deciorganizational value, it begs the question: Why is so
sion makers consider themselves data
much data still going untapped?
literate. Finding ways to use data to
drive more positive outcomes isn't just
at making decisions than before the digiDue to structural inefficiencies from
tal transformation process. Likewise, sur- about implementing the best analytics
departmental silos to disparate technolveys by Accenture demonstrate that most software available. It's also about
ogy infrastructures, crucial details are
encouraging colleagues to embrace the
employees are far less data literate than
overlooked, even as companies collect
power of AI-enabled solutions and getrecord amounts of info. It can be hard to you suspect, and so stressed about workting your workforce up-to-speed with
ing with information that it costs global
separate important details from distracthe ability to analyze information.
employers over $200 billion a year in
tions, and researcher bias or human
While many firms have access to
lost productivity.
error can color results.
business insights, few enterprises are
It pays to invest in complete soup-totruly data-driven. By focusing on stranuts solutions for managing and mining
AI Makes a Difference
tegic analysis, your company can
Luckily for executives, new tools are mak- data onsite or remotely across your busibridge the gap. Doing so can free inforness. Also, it's important to pick a proing it easier to reconcile varied informamation from silos across your organivider whose drag-and-drop tools can
tion sources and unstructured data sets,
zation and help your
make it easier for workers to
surface vital insights, and go from analytemployees gain the
discern crucial business
ics to actionable business intelligence.
While many
ability to translate
insights. Using these soluMany end-to-end cloud data analytics
firms have
into action,
tions, for example, retailers
platforms can now seamlessly integrate
access to busi- insights
unlock new opportunican track customer behavior,
information across business units and
ness insights, ties for your company,
buying patterns, and social
perform in-depth analysis. Put simply:
few enterand create added busimedia conversations to know
These solutions allow data to be stanwhich products
dardized across your operation. They
prises are truly ness value in a fraction
of the time it typically
are most popumake it easy to review and analyze data
data-driven.
takes.
from multiple dimensions and use artifi- lar. Likewise,
manufacturers
cial intelligence (AI) routines to identify
significant events, spot emerging trends,
and more rapidly and effectively zero in
on what's moving the needle in the marketplace before competitors are aware.
By letting AI handle the heavy lifting of
sifting through mountains of information
to spot helpful patterns, you can boost
your ability to see the future taking
shape. Companies can more quickly close
the gap from information to insight and
create the fastest path to building competitive advantage.
According to PwC's annual CEO survey, finding skilled data analysis professionals is a challenge for many
businesses, who (ironically) are no better
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i3_0520_36_Business_ForwardStrategies.indd 36

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I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

5/11/20 9:48 AM

i3 - May/June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - May/June 2020