The world is digitalising at a rapid pace. Practically everything can be tracked and even predicted, provided you know the right variables and interpret them correctly. It is a challenge full of opportunities and threats; organisations need to think critically about how to deal with all the possibilities data offers.
The first step: where does your organisation stand?
Starting with data-driven work begins with critically examining where your organisation stands today. That means asking questions such as:
- Which data sources does your organisation have?
- What is the quality of those data sources?
- Which data sources are missing?
- Are there bottlenecks in your organisation that block data-driven work?
- How do you ensure your organisation works safely with data?
- Do we have the knowledge and skills to create analyses?
What do you need to take into account?
When starting with data-driven work, there are six important points to consider:
- Know what you want to achieve - Set clear goals for what data-driven work should deliver.
- Determine how your organisation turns data into information - Which processes and tools are needed?
- Maximise the value of data by combining sources - Data becomes more valuable in context.
- Be certain of the value of your data - Data quality is the number one prerequisite.
- Get everyone moving in the same direction - Support within the organisation is essential.
- Respect boundaries and be open about your goals - Take ethics and privacy into account from the start.
Practical case: accountancy firm De Administratie
"Since our start in 2003, we have been at the forefront of using technical solutions to work more efficiently, with the aim of letting clients benefit as much as possible. In our sector we work with an enormous amount of data and know a lot about our clients. To give our services extra added value, we had been considering linking the various pieces of data for some time so that we could advise even better. The many different software programmes prefer to keep all that data to themselves.
That is why we called in Datalab to centralise all data in one place. The goal is to create analyses and enrich the available data. During the Quick Scan phase, not only did efficiency improvements come into view, it also became clear that we could reduce our error margins. Although the impact of carrying out the Quick Scan on us as an organisation was limited to a few sessions, the outcomes were not. In a short period, Datalab delivered concrete proposals and solution directions that we are now taking further."
Raymond van Lier
Managing director and co-founder of De Administratie