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In the fast-paced world of today's data-driven business environment, data drives decisions and work. With all the data being generated from the digital information found on the internet and collected internally by organizations, it is no surprise that modern society has come to rely so heavily on data to organize their lives and conduct business.

What are Data-Driven Work Methods?

Data-driven work methods refer to the use of data and digital technology to support improving processes and creating innovations within organizations.

Data is Everywhere

When data-driven work methods just began to take root in the business world, data was held primarily by financial institutions and research organizations. Since then, data has begun to seep into every corner of society.

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow data about their users' interests and connections to be collected and analyzed. The GPS data gathered from smartphones reveals the places we travel and gives insight into consumer behavior patterns.

Data can tell us so much about people – what they buy, where they go, who they talk to – that it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies not to rely on data as part of the decision-making process when conducting business.

Given all this information at our fingertips, it would be costly to downplay what data offers the modern business.

Key Benefits of Using a Data-Driven Approach in the Workplace

Here are the perks of using data in modern business practice:

Data Helps Companies Make Informed Decisions

Data allows managers to base their decisions on facts rather than just intuition or personal preferences. The available data about customers, products, and suppliers can be analyzed so that important relationships between those factors can be identified. Armed with this knowledge, managers can make factual decisions about hiring staff members as well as other key company operations such as marketing strategies.

Data Increases Customer Satisfaction

Better promotional campaigns can be launched with data revealing where customers live and which products they're most likely to buy. Businesses have access to richer information when hiring if search engines can supply samples of work done by potential employees.

Data Makes Work Processes More Efficient

The data-driven company is more efficient because data cuts down on waste by helping managers identify inefficient practices. For example, it can tell when too much or too little inventory is being kept in a warehouse so that proper amounts are maintained at all times, resulting in fewer product shortages and lost sales.

Data analytics brings Transparency in the Workplace

A data-driven company increases transparency by giving all employees access to data instead of keeping data locked away from them. Transparency helps build trust between managers and employees because everyone understands how their role contributes to overall organizational success. Employees gain ownership of their work processes and become excited about improving those work processes.

Data Promotes Cultural Change

Some companies are hesitant to adopt big data because they are afraid it will disrupt an established social order in the workplace. There are some benefits to being one step behind everyone else in terms of new technology, but this is no longer an option with data analytics. Data has a way of uncovering deficiencies and bringing revolutionary insights for firms.

Data Encourages Collaboration Between Departments

Sharing data brings different department heads and individuals together to find new and innovative ways to solve problems. This sort of teamwork is beneficial for data analytics because data lies at the intersection of every aspect of a business: marketing, HR, IT, and finance are key departments that data impacts.

Data Can Help Businesses Beat Competition

Data analytics provides businesses with data that can be used to study their competitors' strategies, including pricing, advertising, and more. By studying data for their competition, businesses can identify the best practices to follow and some of the pitfalls to avoid. This data provides valuable information that allows business data scientists and managers to create new data-driven strategies that will work in a wide variety of situations and allow them to stay one step ahead of their competition.

Data Reveals Faults and Weakness

Data is especially valuable for revealing serious problems with a business's product lines or services, such as defects in manufacturing processes, security vulnerabilities, or toxic chemical leaks. Data derived from sensors can be used on factory floors to detect minute changes such as temperature fluctuations or pressure variances which may cause products to become damaged so they cannot be sold.

Understanding the Type of Data You Need for Your Business

It's important to understand what data you need and how much you need to succeed in your niche. Most people think that data should be as granular as possible, but the fact is that data becomes unusable at some point. The more granular data becomes, the more difficult it is to comb through for key insights.

Collecting data on different factors can also help you see patterns in your business performance. For example, if you collect data on Google Adwords spend versus leads generated, you might realize that your spend is too high or low, given the number of leads you are receiving from this source. This type of information gives businesses a better understanding of where they should invest their resources.

Understand that collecting data is only the first step. The data has to be analyzed and presented in a way that makes it understandable. This is where data visualization comes into play. Visualizing data can help teams see trends, patterns, or irregularities that they might not have noticed otherwise.

For example, website traffic data visualizations allow businesses to track daily changes in site visits or monitor referral links for the largest gains in traffic over time. Data visualizations are also great for sharing results with other business stakeholders who may not understand your data on their own without assistance from graphs or charts.

Working With Experts for the Best Results

Using data to monitor business strategies and make data-driven decisions can help track data and measure business outcomes. But, data alone cannot completely drive business decisions by itself. You need the latest technology to make data-driven decisions successfully.

It is important to work with IT experts who can set you up with all the tools you need to use data models to determine the best ways to analyze data sets to gain the most beneficial insights from your data.

If you're looking for advanced IT solutions for your business needs, Advanced Network Professionals is your first choice. We offer technology consulting at all skill levels and experience levels on an as-needed basis to help companies achieve their goals by leveraging data more effectively. Contact us today for more information.