In the ever-increasing pace of today’s business environment, everyone is looking for ways to maximize the outcomes of their efforts and create more efficient processes. And more and more, organizations are looking to data to be the fuel that accelerates their business. According to our 2018 global data management benchmark report, 99 percent of businesses believe being data-driven gives their organization a competitive advantage. They believe that advantage includes better insight for decision making (57%), more efficient business practices (57%), and better customer relationships (56%). The thing is, though, that being data-driven only provides these benefits when the data driving the strategy is high-quality and accurate.
As we found in our survey, better data can mean better insight, smarter decision-making, more efficient practices, and improved customer relationships. But what does it mean for your day-to-day role? Let’s look at a few real-world examples of how better data has helped make our customers’ lives just a little bit easier, and how it might relate to your role.
Director of IT at a utility provider
After a couple of acquisitions, an IT director at a utility provider wants to be sure that the customer contact data from the new database is accurate before incorporating those individuals into their regular communications. To do so, she decides to utilize data cleansing tools. Using email, address, and phone verification, she can be sure that the customer contact information is correct, which will help to ensure that all necessary communications and service delivery reach the right people.
A marketer at a retail company
The marketer may already be sure that his customer contact information is correct, but maybe he wants some more information on his top consumers. That’s where data enrichment can come in very handy to help achieve better data insight. Based on existing data attributes, the marketer can learn how likely customers are to act when offered a promotion or discount, or get an idea of their demographics and household makeup to determine what their customer base looks like and what motivates their purchase decisions.
Vice president of client relations at a financial institution
Upon realizing that some clients were receiving erroneous information on their accounts, the vice president of client relations at a financial institution realized that there was a standardization and duplication issue in the database. Because information was being entered in multiple formats, some customers ended up with more than one account. To fix the issue and improve the customer experience, the VP implements a tool that can standardize and match similar data to deduplicate and consolidate data records.
A chief information officer at a public agency
A public agency is undergoing a modernization effort that will require a data conversion. They are interested in achieving a 100% cut over in a very short period of time. By profiling their data at the outset, the agency can get a clear idea of what the data they are working with looks like, prioritizing any data quality issues that need to be addressed, and understanding the volumes and types of data that will be involved in the migration process. Based on the profiling phase, mapping specifications can be developed that will help to determine how the information should be moved from the existing database to the new system. Profiling and mapping help to avoid rework and failed user acceptance testing when it comes time to conduct trial runs of the migration. This makes the conversion process work more efficiently.
These are just four examples of how better data relates to individuals’ day-to-day roles. There are thousands of other examples just like this. Pretty much regardless of your role, better data can help you to be more efficient and make stronger strategic decisions. If you’re looking to become more efficient or improve your customer relationships, it is time to start thinking how better data could help.
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