Data is quickly becoming a top priority for businesses looking at making more informed decisions and accelerating growth. From transforming workflows and streaming business processes to elevating BI and even facilitating revenue growth, leveraging data correctly can make a difference for the modern enterprise.
Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. Business leaders can be skeptical when it comes to significant investment and allocation of resources – especially when those investments can take a while to pay off.
This was the subject of the first-ever episode of The Data & AI Podcast where Waseem Ali, CEO at Rockborne and Craig Civil, Director of Data Science and AI at BSI, discuss how to quantify the benefit of digital data for business leaders.
Why does the value of data need to be justified?
Investing in data isn’t cheap. And depending on the size of a company, the costs of building out a team and equipping them with the right resources can cost millions.
Given the current economic landscape, companies aren’t exactly thrilled about spending more money. While there are certainly long-term benefits of using digital data – it takes a data leader capable of quantifying that benefit and telling that data story to sell it to business leaders.
“You have to make the case. You have to paint the vision, you have to show experience. You have to bring people with you. You have to tell the stories in a really engaging, kind of evangelistic way, so that people are willing to invest in you and your team so that you can then kind of three, four, five years out, develop products off the back of this investment that the organisation has made. It’s a tricky job to do.”
Craig Civil, Director of Data Science and AI at BSI (via The Data and AI Podcast)
Naturally, the first step towards clearly identifying that value is to identify the benefit of using that digital data can have on your company.
Why is data important for your business?
The exact benefits of data can vary from company to company, depending on factors such as size and sector. Cost reduction and team productivity are two big ones, but perhaps the most important benefit of data is its ability to provide strategic insights.
Data can be used to guide strategy and help businesses make more informed decisions. Some specific applications could include helping companies take calculating risks when charting new territory, or providing a deeper understanding of customer needs when it comes to improving products and services.
“Data has tremendous potential – when leveraged correctly, it can… lead to significant cost savings, and sometimes even revenue growth.”
Waseem Ali, CEO of Rockborne (via The Data and AI Podcast)
With more companies than ever backing their moves at the highest level with data, getting your data strategy right is necessary for remaining competitive. But how do you sell that necessity to your business leaders?
How do you prove the benefits of data to your business?
Gauging how data can take your business to the next level is one thing, but selling those benefits to business leaders is another thing altogether.
Aligning business challenges with data solutions can be a good first step. Cost-saving and revenue generation are two ways that data can provide a quick, quantifiable benefit for the business.
“For your first data project, identify some opportunities where you have the biggest chance of success, and go for those ones to establish a clear value-add early on. This will give you credibility to fall back on down the line.”
Craig Civil, Director of Data Science and AI at BSI (via The Data and AI Podcast)
Similarly, finding data advocates within the company that can vouch for your vision are important. The success of major shifts in mindset and strategy such as these is contingent on how much support you have internally, as well as having those internally with the skills to make it happen.
Ultimately, none of this is possible unless you have the right data talent within your team.
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Episode 1 of The Data and AI Podcast on quantifying the benefit of data can found HERE.
To access Rockborne’s whitepaper ‘Quantifying the Benefit of Data’, download HERE.
If your company is having difficulty finding skilled data professionals, you can rely on the global leader in data & AI recruitment, staffing and talent development to assist you with your hiring needs. Find out more by visiting the Harnham website.