2020 didn’t quite turn out to be the year we had all expected. The pandemic threw a spanner in the works of most businesses across most industries. However, as we discussed in our previous article looking back at the year, 2020 was also the year many industries truly adopted a digital-first culture, either through necessity or innovation.
Continuing this thread, we wanted to take a look at the key data trends and technology that will transform organisations in 2021 and beyond. From actionable data to Unified Data as a Service, we will delve into the landscape-changing trends to consider in 2021 and beyond.
Actionable Data
2020 highlighted the importance of data for organisations of every shape and size. In 2021, organisations should prioritise an emphasis on actionable data. This means leveraging data processes in order to gain insights into business operations that provides measurable returns.
At Data Clarity, we often find that businesses are often interested in flashy AI projects, they discover the hard way that data in itself is useless without cleaning and analysis. We will focus on that first point further down in this article, but intelligent analysis is vital for business users.
Organisations that focus on enabling business users to access data analytics with a focus on actionable data insights are in a strong position to succeed in 2021 and beyond. This is because the insights mined can help make smarter business decisions at every level and within every department, improve organisational activities and efficiency, and enable businesses to react quickly to changing customer needs.
Find out more: Analytics and Actionable Insights >
Cleaner Data
As we touched on previously, one of the most significant issues right now for organisations is poor quality data – duplicated, incorrect, disorganised data. Due to the poor quality of data, many organisations face the problem of slower data retrieval processes and unreliable data insights, costing both time and money.
Organisations have many options at their disposal to try and improve their data quality from the automation of cleansing data through the of AI and machine learning, improving data collection processes and more. However, in order to ensure data integrity, companies should approach data quality holistically and consider the full end to end process, from collection to consumption.
Data integrity is key to trusting in data and mapping out processes to ensure high quality data should be a top priority of every organisation looking to gain value from data collection. We have put together a full guide to devising a data cleansing strategy to give you more tips on how you can clean and get the most out of your data.
Find out more: Data Cleaning >
Unified Data as a Service
Data as a Service gives users on-demand access to information without relying on the location of the users or applications.
At Data Clarity we have introduced the concept of Unified Data as a Service – providing a platform for businesses to merge and unify data sources, using machine learning to automate processes that would usually consume data scientists’ valuable time. By integrating data analytics solutions into their platforms, UDaaS simplifies data management and helps enterprise clients better harness their data.
Unified data enables organisations to get to know their true customers and implement strategies to improve customer acquisition and retention. A McKinsey survey found that “intensive users of customer analytics are 23 times more likely to clearly outperform their competitors in terms of new customer acquisition.”
Implementing UDaaS enables the gathering and analysis of true, accurate from multiple collection sources, such as web, mobile applications, email, live chat, and even in-store interactions.
To discover more about our UDaaS platform, read about our success with fashion retailer, Paul Smith.
Accessible Data
Every person in an organisation will likely have an idea of how data could help in their day-to-day roles. Perhaps there is a specific data set that would help a content writer to better understand their audience, or a customer insight that would help a sales agent accelerate the route to sale. The potential of data to improve every department is limitless.
At Data Clarity, we recommend that organisations open their business plan and data strategy up, talk to their people to truly understand how data can help grow the business and improve operational efficiency across the whole organisation.
For help drawing up a data strategy that empowers all business users, read our guide here.
Final Thoughts
We have broken down some of the key data trends for 2021, focusing on how businesses can start to see true value from data collection and analysis. In summary, ensuring business users from across the organisation have access to actionable data insights, from trusted unified data sources should be the priority of every organisation.
For advice on how to achieve this goal in 2021, talk to our data experts today.