i3 - November/December 2020 - 36

Business

By Scott Steinberg

FO RWA R D ST R AT EG I E S

 T 

o succeed in business, you need to collect data but
also visualize and interpret it to equip your team
with the skills needed to smartly respond to the
insights it presents. Cisco projects that 27.1 billion devices
will be connected and capable of transmitting feedback by
2021. And Experian reports that 99% of organizations say
being data-driven conveys competitive advantage.
But at the same time, 97% of data is
unused by organizations, according to
Gartner, and Accenture notes that just
one in four employees describe themselves as data literate. To bridge the gap,
it's important to find effective ways to
organize information across your business. It's also vital to embrace the art of
data visualization - the practice of visually presenting information in an easily
understood way to convey key insights.

Data Literacy and Analytics

Boosting your business' data literacy,
and ability to work with analytics,
requires the use of both high- and lowtech solutions. Part of the challenge lies
in improving data management schemes
and IT infrastructures, while also
upskilling your workforce. Today nine in
10 businesses admit managing information is difficult, while a third struggle to
access trustworthy information to make

97% of data
is unused by
organizations
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i3_1120_36_Business_ForwardStrategies.indd 36

decisions. Providing tools that can help
employees quickly interpret signals that
the market is sending, and translate
them into actionable business intelligence, is crucial.
Only half of enterprises trust their
own data, says Experian's Global Data
Management Report, while 95% believe
their business suffers from poor quality
data. This problem can be solved by
implementing universal tools across
your IT infrastructure with standardized methods to collect, sort and share
data across your organization. These
centralized systems make it easier for
employees to access information anytime, anywhere on-demand. They
should also be designed to be contextual (capable of using insights to provide
informed interactions); able to apply
these insights in real-time; and built to
be scalable. Likewise, these high-tech
systems should automatically scrub and

verify the accuracy of the data on a
routine (daily, weekly, monthly) basis.
It's also vital to guard against human
error in your data management capabilities. Worker bias can be a potential
factor when weighing data sets, and key
data points, timeframes and metrics
can differ greatly from one department
to the next. Meaning that even when
equipped with powerful data collection
and visualization tools, these factors
can still lead to strategic misunderstandings and missed opportunities to
grow your business.
When picking a tool consider solutions
that also capitalize on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Backed
by cognitive algorithms, these smart
solutions can automatically reconcile
information from many sources, even
when encoded in different formats. They
can also provide 360-degree visibility
into what's happening in a business.
Using them, you can pull the needed
information in real-time to predict market patterns and shoppers' purchasing
habits; identify new opportunities for
expansion; streamline internal processes;
locate areas to cut costs and improve efficiency; translate learnings into graphics
that quickly convey key insights; and
make smarter strategic decisions.

Stay Ahead

To boost your visibility into what's happening in your organization, you must
enhance your firm's data literacy and
ability to access information. Providing
end-to-end data management and
visualization tools can uncover helpful
business insights, and quickly give
end-users the perspective they need
to ask smarter questions.
Key insights must be put into action
to be effective. Combining real-world
training with AI and machine learningpowered solutions, which automatically
learn and grow with each new interaction, will lead to new opportunities.

Sean Gladwell/Getty Images

Data Management
and Visualization

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

10/20/20 10:24 AM
i3 - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - November/December 2020
