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Data is wealth. Data is knowledge. Knowledge gives you the power to make decisions leading to digital transformation. Digital transformation means being ready for the present and the future, taking on the competition, acquiring customers, knowing them, and making the right choices at the right time or even ahead of time. Give data the importance it deserves, and you will see organization-wide changes.

Finger on the Pulse

Knowing is important. You must know what customers want by way of products and services. You must know which way the market is headed. You must know about the competition in order to develop counter-strategies or branch off in a different direction. You must know about your suppliers. You must know about your employees. Without knowing, you will not be able to address expectations and trends or make the right decisions.

It is easy to gather data, store it in a warehouse, and analyze it at leisure, but that introduces lag. Given how fast markets move, you would be at a disadvantage in gathering data from different sources, cleansing it, and then analyzing it. Big data is the way to go if you wish to succeed in digital transformation, but that, again, introduces issues. In this instance, it is best to engage a specialist in big data gathering, monitoring, and analytics so that you get data in near-real-time. This way, you keep your finger on the pulse.

AI and ML Feed Voraciously on Data

Drawing elementary inferences from historical data is primordial in today’s terms. This is the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning that draws and feeds on data voraciously to deliver a set of suggestions that you can implement. While the human mind can consider a set of probabilities, AI/ML is faster and more accurate as well as objective.

According to PwC, 72 percent of business decision-makers rely on AI to help humans concentrate on meaningful work, and 80 percent of business leaders claim AI boosts productivity. The task of business owners is becoming progressively more challenging:

• Gather data from a variety of sources and try to do it in real-time
• Use AI/ML to make sense of data
• Use your judgment to choose from recommendations made by AI/ML combined

Microsoft makes it easy by incorporating AI into its data software. Executives simply look at the recommendations and make their choice. This saves them the worry of making a possible wrong judgment or having overlooked something. This way, they can make smarter decisions leading to quality digital transformation.

Customers Are All Over the Digital Space

It is difficult to know customer behavior and thoughts, given that they use social media, buy at retail point of sales, are influenced by peers, and buy through e-commerce, with varying levels of experience. The common denominator is data. You draw data from all these channels, put it through the data analytics mill, and draw vital information juice to help you make the right decision.

For instance, customers may be talking about the new color/shade, fabric, or style for 2020/2021 on social media. Listen, act now, and be ready with a product that meets their aspirations, delivering exemplary customer experience in the process.

The IoT Thingy

IoT is growing, and with 5G around the corner, it will grow even more and keep sending out steady streams of voluminous data that will help if you know how to take advantage of it. One area where this helps is data from production and manufacturing through IoT. This is an extended topic that could be covered in great detail, but, in short, IoT data can help digitally transform and improve production/manufacturing by allowing you to:  

• Keep track of inventory, so you never run out of stock or are saddled with “deadstock”
• Monitor production processes and derive intelligence on improving processes while reducing costs, something which will reflect on finished product quality and price, gaining new customers

Your Business Processes

Managers love hierarchies and structures within the organization and outside it. It is their “comfort zone,” but this existing system may not actually be conducive to efficiency and productivity. How would you know? Data comes to the rescue. You get data on employee performance, vis-à-vis their capabilities, and may spend time figuring out what is responsible. The process usually is. Data analytics can help you to cut down a lot of “red-tapism” and let employees do something productive rather than follow a routine and time-wasting, non-productive procedures and processes. Likewise, how you address customers and their issues can be tackled more effectively once you know what they expect from you. It is not easy to spare time to compile data from different sources, but you can engage an expert in digital transformation for this worthwhile exercise. It pays.

No Business Is an Island

Everything has an impact on your business: political activities, climate and weather changes, natural calamities, regulations, and so on. Here again, as an actively engaged business executive, you simply do not have time to keep track of all the developments that may have a direct or oblique impact. Engage digital transformation experts and let them concatenate even peripheral data. You can take timely action to thwart threats or take steps to avoid loss. Professionals will:

• Develop a Data Strategy
• Unify data from diverse sources
• Analyze it
• Derive actionable intelligence
• Help you to make the right decisions at the right time

Data is big business and, rightly so, since it powers business in this digital age. Engage professionals for the transformation to becoming a knowledgeably powerful business entity because knowledge is power.