C-Level: The basics of data-driven business

The customer has ever greater demands, demands 24/7 availability and wants products and services that are as individual as possible. At the same time, the competition is not sleeping. So today the question of securing economic success is very central for companies.

Data-driven business and its added value

Decisions based on data can be made faster and more securely. Integration, analysis and automation must be considered in order to use data profitably for the customer and thus for the company. For example, data must not only be available in the main system, but also in the right place at the right time. In the same way, data sets must be interpreted beyond their pure function in order to identify correlations and gain new insights. Based on this, suggestions for action or automated actions can be triggered. This leads to added value for the customer and thus for the company.

Four fields of application can be derived from data-driven business:

• Customer engagement: increase in customer satisfaction and individual and timely customer interaction
• Operational optimization: improved and automated process control
• Employee empowerment: optimized working methods and effectiveness of employees
• Product transformation: expansion of the product portfolio based on customer needs

The five key factors of Data-Driven Business

But how can data-driven business be evaluated in your own company? The following five key factors show where a company stands in the area of data-driven business:

1. Data integration: Are you able to have the right data in the right place at the right time?
2. Manage: Are you able to properly curate the data and maintain the right balance between agility and control?
3. Analyze: Do you have the expertise to analyze data across the enterprise to identify patterns in the data?
4. Action: Are you able to implement the insights gained as efficiently and automatically as possible?
5. Attitude: Do your employees have a healthy, critical and pragmatic attitude towards technology and data-driven approaches

Read the full article by our expert Dr. Yves Brise. Published in C-Level magazine 3|2018.