Information is wealth and we all agree to it, but does having truckloads of information help businesses to glide over completion? Perhaps not would be the answer today from most CIO’s or IT guys at enterprises globally. Businesses are moving from being data-driven in their objectives to insight driven. Insight is what you get when you put information as fuel into your business’ operational engine. You move forward with a thrust. Insight means you have superior knowledge over your competitors and you’re able to make better decisions than them to win customers/markets, improve profits and/or returns and beat down costs. This is applicable to all sectors be it finance, healthcare, retail, government etc.
So how do you move over from data advantage to an insight advantage fuelled business model? Here are some tips:
Identify the insights you need
Before getting started on doing things with insights, you definitely need to draw up a plan to find out what insights you actually need. This has a lot to do with how think tanks in your organization who have years of market exposure, have to say. For example, if you are into retail, your analysts can easily predict the trends in every section of retail like consumer goods, fashion, electronics, etc. After you are done with forming the framework, it’s time to sharpen your guns with insights. Forming insights basically deals with asking the right questions in your domain as to what, when, why, who and how you are going to do it. These insights should then be drilled into every operational hierarchy in your enterprise from the top directors to managers to starters in fresh roles.
Bring in technology
Today we produce as much digital data in 2 days equivalent to the entire quantity of data generated from the beginning of time till the year 2003. Now isn’t that scary enough! Who on earth is going to work on so much data manually? The answer is no one. So we bring technology into the picture. This is the area where big data makes its blockbuster debut. According to IDC, the big data and analytics industry is expected to be worth $125 billion in 2015 alone. Companies are investing heavily into big data applications as they are the number one source for insights. The trend is only going to get stronger in the long run as more big data frameworks and tools arrive on the scene every now and then.
Take a cultural shift
Customer is King and there is no arguing on this fact, but you have to realize that today this statement has more meaning to it than ever before. You should change the statement to Customer Experience is King. By customer experience, we mean to say that you have to offer the best experience to your customer irrespective of through which channel they reach out to your products and services. This involves collating and working on insights that revel around customer behavior across multiple digital and physical channels to derive the most appealing approach to success. You need to develop capabilities to amass insights from a number of customer channels and identifying the right human resources to entrust multifaceted responsibilities.
Develop your own data story
Once you have the facts and information in your hands, you might be in a position to create magic with it, but you might find yourself stuck at some point. The reasons for the stalemate might be many but you need to find the right path as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is to create your own data-driven story right before you start your journey with insight creation. Big data, analytics and all the technology that goes along with it often have a tough time in convincing all stakeholders who may not be tech wizards as well. Unless and until you are able to guarantee a wholehearted cooperation and collaboration from everyone, the value of insight-powered business models may be severely under rated. If you are able to weave a powerful story on how you are going to make a difference in operations, costs, efficiency, productivity and profits with insights, then it is a sure shot interest generator for everyone involved.
Set the pace for more data
Once you have your insight driven business model in place, the next big task is to keep it running. And what do you need as fuel? Data of course! The more data you are able to bring into the picture, the more value you will be able to realize from it. Evaluating facts such as human emotions require participation not just from your data scientists or analytical engineers, but from your consumers. Connect with them and keep on asking them what you could do to serve them better. This connection does not necessarily mean you have to ask them for it always. Create scenarios when they realize that you are using the data they supply to offer greater experiences. This will certainly wash away their reservations in providing you with more data as and when you need it.
The above tips will definitely serve you well if you are to build an insight driven business environment. You need to have the best combination of artistic sense, technology awareness and engineering talent if you are to create the perfect model. It is not an impossible task as several organizations have successfully blended the three to come up with fabulous results like for example Amazon, Google, Facebook to name a few. You could join their ranks too if you set things straight from the beginning itself.