Data is one of the most valuable commodities, yet few enterprises take advantage of its full power, says this expert.
Data is transforming our world. Governments across the globe are examining data and how it can be used to serve their citizens better. Businesses, both old and new, are making the shift towards data-driven business models. With these changes come the growing demand for data professionals skilled in data analytics and adept at delivering insights critical to supporting organizations and businesses.
The reality, however, is that data professionals spend a greater chunk of their time on data administration.
Limited time is spent on analysis and creating meaningful, actionable insights from the organization’s data. The time spent searching for and preparing data could be used to generate actionable insights critical to supporting the business in the current pandemic.
Sadly, if businesses continue on this trajectory, the monopolization of data professionals’ time will only get worse as the volume of data grows. As teams struggle to manage volume, data professionals are confronted with more issues. With data siloes and incomplete data sets thrown into the mix, IT teams find themselves standing at the top of a data chaos heap—a chaos that data professionals will find themselves responsible for and, perhaps, have to spend even more of their time sorting out.
Why data admin is so important
Data is the lifeblood of digital transformation, and businesses of all sizes should have access to all of their data, not just some of it. Yet, many businesses are unaware of the state of health of their data.
Having insufficient data can be worse than having no data at all. If a business has only a partial view of their data, the insights delivered by data professionals will not reflect the business as a whole, leading to poor decision-making that could have a negative impact on the bottom line.
With a full view, data professionals can deliver accurate and actionable insights that will provide the business with clarity and confidence to make the right decisions.
Data intelligence: The missed opportunity
The severe data talent shortage that the world is currently facing is only further monopolizing data professionals’ time. Without a full and developed team of data professionals, data administration will fall to a few individuals—stretching their time even further.
With so much time being spent on data admin, key activities including data analysis and strategy are neglected. Data specialists’ inability to focus on value-adding tasks has resulted in lower revenues, fewer opportunities for innovation, and less-than-optimal customer experiences.
By prioritizing data intelligence, data professionals will no longer have to sacrifice hours finding, sorting and preparing data from across the business. Data professionals will be able to look at business data as a reliable source from the start and focus their efforts on delivering key business insights.
Data chaos to data clarity
Businesses should invest in tools that accelerate the data-to-value journey with easy and searchable dataset documentation, quality-proofing and promotion. Deploying these tools effectively will mean data is pinpointed across data sources, even those that are siloed. With a single point of governance and access, data can be turned into reusable and shareable assets. This will free up data professionals, and allow them to work on analyzing the data and delivering actionable insights to direct business strategy.
When deciding which tools to invest in, businesses should look for a system that facilitates access to data and checks data relevance and trustworthiness immediately. Applications that provide instant assessments of data health and accuracy based on quality, popularity and user-defined ratings will reduce the time that data professionals spent searching and preparing data.
Data is one of the most valuable commodities for businesses; however, many enterprises fail to take advantage of data’s full power. With data professionals bogged down with administration tasks and too bogged down to support business strategy, investing in the right tools will help thems address efficiency and productivity problems from the outset.
Only then can such sought-after professionals leverage trustworthy data quickly and effectively.
