Democratize Analytics for Business Decision-Making Efficacy and Efficiency

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At organizations large and small, big decisions are being made every minute. These decisions are—or at least should be— backed by the ever-increasing amount of data within an organization. Historically, IT teams have acted as the overseers of how this data is collected, stored, and accessed. But as enterprises grow increasingly more agile and complex, this mindset is starting to change, giving rise to the demand for democratization to unlock the true power of analytics for business decision-making.

At first glance, democratizing information would appear to merely mean making data accessible, but it goes much deeper than that. Here, we’ll talk about what data democratization looks like, why it’s now critical for organizations, and finally, how your business can achieve it.

What is Data Democratization?  

At its core, data democratization is the continuous process of empowering everybody in an organization, regardless of their technical expertise, to access the information they need and make data-driven decisions. 

Democratization removes the silos between departments and enables all employees to access, gain insights from, and act upon a unified set of the company’s information. Under this format, data ownership and responsibility are shared throughout the organization rather than with one or two departments.

In a standard business, each department will have a unique set of information needs. Sales teams, for example, rely on information that helps them better understand their customers. Operations departments need data that helps them boost efficiency and lower product costs. And so it goes for marketing teams, procurement, and the like.

With all of these separate stakeholders relying on data, organizations need a robust and accessible way to ensure all their departments remain productive and contribute to business growth. Unfortunately, most businesses rely on legacy data infrastructure and outdated processes that often leave teams to parse out the data themselves manually, often resulting in error and wasted time.

Information is powerful, and when key decisions are backed by solid information, the results can be similarly powerful. Research is now starting to prove what many of us have already suspected about the competitive advantages of data democratization. According to several recent studies, businesses that make data-driven decisions:

• Are 23x more likely to acquire customers,

• On average, increase their profits by 8% and decrease costs by 10%,
• Grow at an average of 30% per year; and
• Are predicted to take $1.8 trillion annually from their non-data-savvy competitors.

Why do Businesses Struggle with Data Democratization?

For all its benefits, data democratization comes with a whole host of difficulties which can cause leadership to abandon the cause of better leveraging analytics for business decision-making altogether. Here a just a few of these challenges:

Unknown Costs

To reduce spend, many businesses opt for a “lone-wolf” approach and manage data democratization without the right technical and operational expertise. Ironically, this is often the more expensive route, since businesses can quickly find themselves up against unforeseen obstacles, leading to costs that were never budgeted.

Current-State Complexity

Democratizing data can be a very complex undertaking. To create a robust data and analytics foundation, businesses need to undertake a large amount of technical legwork to unify all sources of data and streamline access and reporting. This is further compounded when legacy infrastructure makes it close to impossible to extract existing information at the outset.

Culture Shift

Perhaps the most important part of data democratization is understanding that a major culture shift needs to take place in every facet of the business. Many companies undertake digital transformation projects without prioritizing this culture shift, which we find can often result in failure. To best leverage analytics for business decision-making, the entire organization needs to embody a data-driven culture.

What Does a Successful Data Democracy Look Like?

Data democratization will invariably look different from company to company, but all successful, data-driven businesses will possess three key characteristics:

1. A strong foundation for data infrastructure.

A clearly defined process for the management of data - including quality, consistency, accessibility, and security is at the core of a data democracy. Like a house’s foundation allows builders to scale the structure from the ground up, strong data infrastructure enables businesses to scale their growth strategies efficiently and effectively because there is an embedded layer of integrity behind the information from which they are working.  

2. An integrated network of data.

Every datapoint lends itself to the larger picture of a business, and to see that picture, the data itself needs to be integrated. This means taking that data that resides in several disparate systems, cleaning it up, validating it, contextualizing it, and combining it into a single, unified view that can be accessed and analyzed by all teams.

3. A data-driven culture with clearly defined roles.

Building a data-driven culture does not mean making every employee a data scientist. Rather, it means empowering teams with easy-to-use but powerful reporting, measurement and analytics tools, training employees to have a fundamental understanding of the business, and delegating distinct roles to streamline data collection, storage, reporting, analytics.

Leverage Analytics for Business Decision-Making with Data Democratization

If your business is ready to create a data democracy that enables everyone in the organization to access the information they need to make better business decisions, now has never been a better time to start.  

As with any digital transformation project, the first step is knowing the what, the how, and the why. The second step is finding a data partner with the tools and know-how to bring data democratization to life for your business.

By working with a data integrator like Fastloop, you can ensure that both the technical and operational requirements of data democratization are met. Our unique fusion of technical and business expertise gives us the insight and skills to maximize your data for optimal operational efficiency and profitability. Let us enable your organization to transform raw data into deep business insights, enabling better, more informed decision-making to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Reach out to us today to learn more.

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