Understanding Data Maturity: How Your Organization Can Upgrade Its Data Usage
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An experienced chef knows how to source the best ingredients, use the latest cooking techniques, and blend flavors together to create an exquisite dish. For modern businesses, data is the ingredient of choice. Having high levels of data maturity is key to knowing how to procure, store, and use that ingredient to cook up a competitive advantage.
Integrating data and analytics into your daily operations can result in 58% more sales, but that growth is only possible if you understand what to do with the data once you have it. That’s why growing your business’ data maturity should be at the top of your to-do list, and a vital step in your digital transformation strategy.
What is Data Maturity?
Data maturity is the ability to use data as a strategic asset. It’s about having the right processes, technology, and people in place to ensure that your data is up-to-date, complete, accurate, and accessible when needed. With this expertise, a company will be able to utilize data-driven decision-making to its full extent.
An organization with high levels of data maturity can quickly identify trends within its customer base or new growth opportunities, giving them a competitive edge over its rivals who are not yet leveraging the full potential of their analytics.
Several qualities constitute data maturity. Let’s take a look at a few.
Top Down Adoption
Organizations need leadership that understands the value of data and analytics. The most successful companies have executives fully committed to making data-driven decisions and empowering their teams to use data for maximum impact.
Data Quality & Governance
Having a solid data governance program ensures that all your data is up-to-date, complete, accurate, and accessible when needed. It also helps prevent any errors or discrepancies in the process, which can lead to poor decision-making based on wrong information.
Organizational Values
A data-mature company will embrace agility, experimentation, new ideas, and empowered staff. This manifests in programs like data literacy training, support for data-driven initiatives, and a culture of continual learning.
Data Access
Data access is essential for data maturity. Accessible, secure, and reliable data sources are necessary to understand and utilize customer insights. There should be clear rules in place about confidential data, but staff also shouldn’t have to go far to access the information they need to make day-to-day decisions.
Teamwork
Successful companies have teams working together to ensure that data and analytics are in sync with the business goals. This alignment ensures everyone is on the same page when it comes to making decisions and taking action based on insights from data.
Not only your IT team should understand and utilize this information. Ideally, there would be a member of the data analytics team in every area of your business operations.
Data Literacy
One of the biggest barriers to the successful adoption of data-driven decision-making is a lack of data literacy among team members. You should have simple, comprehensive training that keeps everyone up to date on policies and procedures to avoid anyone returning to the old way of doing things.
Integrated Technology Infrastructure
Data must be securely stored and quickly accessible across all departments within a business. This requires integrations between your team's tools and the tools that store the information.
Benefits of Data Maturity
A mature data operation will enable you to make more informed decisions that better serve customers, increase efficiency, and maximize profits. Other benefits include:
Improved Customer Experience - You’ll be able to access insights into customer behaviors and preferences, enabling you to tailor products or services for specific segments or individuals.
Greater Accuracy - Data-driven decisions provide greater accuracy than human judgment alone based on the facts presented in front of them. This helps reduce mistakes that could cost your business money in the long term.
Cost Savings - Automating processes with data-driven insights can help you reduce unnecessary costs and streamline operations. You’ll be able to identify areas of your business where improvements are needed to save money, improve efficiency, and increase profits.
Identification of Threats and Opportunities - Data maturity helps you identify threats and opportunities in the marketplace. You’ll be able to spot trends, predict customer needs, and make informed decisions that put your business ahead of the competition.
Connectivity - Data maturity also helps you connect with customers, partners, and suppliers to create a more integrated ecosystem. This allows for improved collaboration and better customer service.
Assessing and Addressing Your Data Maturity
Before you can get started improving your company’s data maturity, you need to know where you’re at. Only 13% of companies currently report the highest degree of data maturity, so you’re not alone if you have space to grow.
Taking a closer look at the current state of your data utilization allows you to identify any weaknesses, ensure your data governance aligns with your strategy, verify your current system’s efficiency, and develop a targeted plan of action.
To get a full picture of your current data maturity, you need to look at the following areas.
Accessibility
If your team is meant to be basing all of their decisions on a steady stream of data, it’s important that that data be accurate and accessible. Data needs to be stored in a way that is always available in real time.
Having an up-to-date and easy to understand interface is vital. You also want to ensure that both quantitative and qualitative data can be communicated in real-time.
Data Profiling
Data profiling is the process of examining data elements to ensure they are accurate and complete. The goal here is to identify any errors or omissions that may lead to inaccurate insights.
This also helps you determine how well your team understands the data they’re using, and if they have access to all the information needed to make informed decisions. You'll want to have processes in place for data validation, certification, and analysis.
Governance
Your data governance should align with your overall business strategy and be designed to ensure that you follow all relevant laws, regulations, and ethical considerations.
It also provides the framework for ensuring everyone is aware of their roles and responsibilities regarding data management. Make sure you're aware of your data lineage and prepared for any audits of where your information is coming from.
Daily Operations
A data-mature company will have data and technology infused into every part of its day. A chef wouldn’t get far serving a main course without their signature ingredient. To make the most of the information coming in, you must know what to do with it at every stage of your operations.
A big part of this is understanding every stage of the data lifecycle. You need to know where your data is coming from, where it’s stored, and how secure it is. This resource is ever-evolving, and if you don’t know the form it’s taking now, you can’t properly use it.
One of the most practical and tactile ways to gauge the data maturity of a company is its use of automation. Your team should not be hung up doing mundane and repetitive tasks when AI can easily do that for them.
A great example of this is Stormboard’s instant reporting feature. Instead of tying up a team member with scribbling down meeting notes and turning them into something easily understood, let Stormboard do that work for you and walk out with beautiful, clearly laid out meeting notes, so you can get back to doing high-value work.
Security of Data
If a company is truly data mature, they understand the value of its data and keep it as secure as possible. All the information that passes hands in your company should be encrypted with Transport Layer Security and hosted in a safe place.
Features like Two-Factor Authentication, single-tenant, data residency, and a secure termination process can take your data security to the next level. Finding a tool like Stormboard that checks all these boxes ensures that your team’s biggest asset is taken care of.
Management
Having a clear data management and analysis process is necessary to ensure the accuracy and efficient use of your data. This includes having automated processes in place that streamline the collection and aggregation of data, as well as strategies for identifying potential insights.
In Conclusion
The first step in creating a masterful menu is acknowledging the ingredients and skills you have at your disposal. Any good chef knows that there is always more to learn and more to master.
As you start the journey of assessing your company’s data maturity, know that you have already begun improving it by taking the time to look at where you’re at. Using the proper tools and keeping data at the core of your strategy, you’re sure to be growing in maturity in no time.
Stormboard’s collaboration experts are here to help your organization move toward new levels of data maturity. We’ll help you learn to treat your ideas like data - increasing efficiency, saving time, and most importantly — backing every decision your business makes with actionable data.
About the author:
A programmer by trade, Nick Saraev is a freelance writer and entrepreneur with a penchant for helping people excel in their careers. He's been featured on Popular Mechanics & Apple News, and has founded several successful companies in e-commerce, marketing, and artificial intelligence. When he's not working on his latest project, you can find him hiking or painting.
