Siloed or integrated decision making – how can I improve data integration across the business?
Most businesses have procured systems to store / manage data on customers, HR, products, finances etc., and within a number of years have amassed a large amount of data, which in most cases is disconnected and understandable in its parts, however, unavailable for insights across the whole of the enterprise.
By that I mean, most enterprises can create static reports typically through Excel (I hope), and understand what may well be happening with employees and their sick days, or with the financial statements of the company, or at that moment in time what is happening within the sales function (to a certain degree). All of this is done in the confines of that specific department, so there is little overlap of data between departments.
There is nothing wrong about this way of being in an enterprise, however, we are at an inflection point in the state of the world economy and the landscape is competitively changing minute by minute. The ability to understand the organisations pulse by connecting data sources quickly, in an affordable and sustainable manner, to gain insight and drive actions, and make better timely decisions about the future of their products, services, sales, marketing and so on, is what winners embrace.
Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytical tools don’t need to be expensive, and technically dependent on the IT department. It’s the business people who know their business and their data. So, I urge businesses to think about rolling such tools out to the line of business, as this is where the real heart of the organisation lies and where decisions are made. If approached in this manner, there is normally a great adoption rate, and cultural change is likely to occur much quicker. When someone says to you that it will cost you an arm and a leg to do this, ask them why.
To take a fresh look at your analytics get in touch
You must be logged in to post a comment.