How to Develop an Enterprise Data Strategy

Mine ‘Big Data’ Effectively and Efficiently

Appoint ‘Data Stewards’ to Manage Data

Develop your Business Strategy

Big data if mined correctly, can help better target your business strategy

Big Data Offers Opportunities

Despite ‘Big data’ being big news, and online material showcasing its advantages, most organisations are yet to develop a strategy to mine and analyse data.  The aim of this is post is to help you see the steps needed to develop a data strategy.  A good data strategy providing you act upon it will make your organisation more agile, increase revenue, and see business critical trends.

Your Data and Business Strategy

From the outset it is important you can see the link between your business strategy and the data you collect. Professionals in the field of data analysis often find that this is not always easy as businesses do not always have a defined strategy, or one that is immediately clear.

If your business does not have an immediately defined business strategy, it is a good idea to develop it.  This will make the link between your data and your strategy clearer.

Once this is complete it is time to link data to the business.  One approach is to take a forth coming project which spans the business.  This ensures that executives from every aspect of the organisation are involved.  Ideally, the project will either collate or draw on data in some way.  This makes data part of the project from day one.

Appoint Responsible People

To successfully glean information from your data, you will need to appoint people responsible for collecting it.  Business intelligence companies often refer to these people as ‘data stewards’.  They should be more business focused than IT focused as they will need to interpret the data they are collecting and quantify it.  Responsibilities for your data stewards will include:

• Collect relevant data
• Ensure compliance
• Define the management of data collected
• Correct data quality issues as they arise

To do it effectively, they have to have a good understanding of the business aspect they are collecting data for.  This will help them sort the wheat from the chaff, and as such, make the data useful and valuable to the business.

Making Sense of the Data

To make sense of the data, you need to determine what you want to find from the outset.  To that end it is a good idea to put together a team of people who can discuss what information you want to extract.  This could be fairly simple stuff at first, but as time goes on and your teams become more experienced, finding good quality trends will become a lot easier.

Overcoming Data Strategy Issues

Most business intelligence companies find there is often resistance when new data management policies come into play.  Mid-level managers and IT staff can often be resistant.  They often feel their territory is being impeded.  A good way to avoid these conflicts is to make them part of the process.  This not only gives them responsibilities, but it aligns your IT infrastructure with business goals.

Once you implement data strategy, you bring considerable benefits to the business.