I get asked this question a lot. Both from companies that want to work more with data and analytics as well as companies that have yet to see the point.
In our industry there is a lot of talk about being datadriven as if it had value in itself. But as with all things it is more about what you do with your skills rather than just having them.
For me the purpose of being datadriven can be summarized into three points:
- Take the right decisions – By analyzing your data with an open mind as well as based on experience you can find where you need to change your business processes or where you need to do something new.
- Take better decisions – By basing the decisions in the process on data rather than on a gut feeling you can take better and less biased decisions. If you also use more data and more advanced models you can take decisions that are not apparent to a person.
- Taking automated decisions – When you are basing your decisions on data then you can automate those decisions. This will allow for personalizing your customer experience and offers, optimizing your logistics and a thousand other things that you could not do before. Because those processes involved millions of decisions and cannot be done manually.
In the end it is all about making everyday a little better and a little easier.