We’ve been having fun with Mike Veldhuis of Nalta in a four-part podcast series on how to become a data-driven company. In the first episode, we really focused on the crucial initial step toward becoming data driven: Your data. First, understand your data. This seems pretty basic, I know, but research shows that anywhere between 60-70% of data within an organization is unknown. You need to understand where your data is, what your data is, and how to make sure it’s trustworthy, useful, and actionable. Second, take a step back to look ahead. I hear many of our customers talk about solving the same problems over and over again, every time they implement new applications or systems. Think about any new technology as an opportunity to reconsider your processes and your focus, so you can make the right changes once instead of the wrong changes repeatedly. In Episode Two, we delve into the business reasons behind becoming data driven. Yes, it’s about being connected to your end customer — whether that’s a consumer, a B2B buyer, or even an employee you’re onboarding. But it’s really about wish fulfillment. It means that when your customer or your employee has a wish, at any point, you want to be able to understand your customer so well, drawing from all of your data sources, that you can instantly grant that wish. Being data-driven means dreaming about what you could do with your data, how you can make it valuable in a customer-facing way. And, of course, how you can do it fast. That’s just one of the beauties of a low- or no-code development platform. It frees IT to set strategies and governance, and then allows lines of business to solve their own problems or use IT as a partner in cracking a business issue. But the trick is recognizing that IT owns the “plumbing” infrastructure that holds the data. If you’re solving a really good problem for the business, you’re going to have to plan to scale that. And that’s where IT has to come in. The last thing you want is to have something architected that shows value but can’t scale. IT is better at maintaining and growing the solution and cultivating it down the road for the business. For example, the companies that were most successful through the pandemic were able to pivot and build new experiences very quickly because they had the plumbing in place, they had access to their data sets, and they had integrations running. With intelligent and stable plumbing, the data is available to you. And ultimately, to be connected to the user to grant wishes throughout their day.
Why Being a Data-Driven Company Is Really About Wish Fulfillment
