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Escaping from Data Lockdown with a Digital Evolution

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With data amassing at an exponential rate, digital transformation continues to be throttled as businesses struggle to achieve the insight they need from the data. To achieve value from data, businesses need to be able to access what they need, when they need, by the right people, in a usable format. Peter Ruffley, CEO, Zizo, has previously detailed the first three aspects businesses should consider to get out of data lockdown, including data access, responsibility and outcomes. With the data readily available and the company goals in mind, businesses need to ensure that the data they’re analysing will be of value and help them meet these objectives.

Here, Peter highlights two further aspects for businesses to consider before they can move forward in their digital transformation journey. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to suit every company, by having available and structured data with an open and flexible culture, organisations are in a much stronger position to take on this critical shift and escape from data lockdown. 

Data structure and analysis:

Data must be structured for purpose – clean and consistent data will lead to better decisions and an easier transformation. There are many whose skill set is structuring data and building data structures; but because of their fixed belief on how they think things should be done, it can be a choke point for digital transformation. You have to be prepared to follow a business objective, even if it may apparently contradict some of the deeply held beliefs of your IT colleagues, or if the data tells you something that goes against your intuition, rather than derailing the process. 

Digital transformation isn’t a one-change process, but instead, a number of transformations will need to be made and augmented with other sources of structured data – it should be conducted as an ongoing rolling programme of incremental changes and additions. That adaptability to absorb other sources of data and find other business value is what this is all about.

It’s not digital transformation, it’s digital evolution. Some things may not go 100% to plan, therefore, you have to change and adapt based around those models. And just because every decision can be driven by data, does not mean you have to analyse all the data before you take each step. There is a case for paralysis through analysis; if you try to look at everything, you will end up doing nothing. An agile way of doing things and trying something small to see if it works, using the tools and techniques for when we want to scale up or down will enable smaller steps towards transformation to be taken faster. 

Business value and collaboration:

The key to digital transformation success is collaboration and flexibility. Businesses need to be flexible enough to digitally transform the marketplace. The tools, techniques and technologies exist, but there are only some organisations that are going to be smart, quick enough and united to actually take advantage. 

By distinguishing ownership and having a sense of collaboration within your company culture, the barriers to digital transformation will be diminished as team members acknowledge the changes that are going to be made to the business as a result of this transition. Without everybody on board, the transformation will not work. Technology is just one part of the process underpinning these changes – having an open attitude towards the use of data within the organisation is a necessity. 

People need to trust the data they’re using through provenance and understanding the business rules and objectives. Rather than trying to impose a rigid framework, using data as the foundation provides you with trusted evidence and reasoning, backed up by other areas of the business. If you’ve got a dialogue supported with data that you trust, stakeholders will buy into the initiative. 

Organisations can’t expect the deployment of tools and technologies to change their business overnight, but by having a more open and collaborative attitude towards the use of data within the organisation, underpinned by new tools and technology, a digital evolution can progress in the right direction. 

Meeting the Tests to get out of Data Lockdown

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Digital transformation of any business has always been hampered by making sense of underlying data. And that data has been growing in volume at an unprecedented rate driven by the growth of IoT. It’s the perfect storm – the need for real-time information being increasingly distanced by the rate at which the data volume is growing. Businesses need insight, not just data, which means getting the right information, to the right person, at the right time. 

But the age-old problem remains today – how do you understand and see what data you have readily available, in a format that’s usable and that you can access at the right time? Peter Ruffley, CEO, Zizo, explores three aspects businesses must consider to get out of ‘data lockdown‘…

Data access 

There are a multitude of ways to store and access data, but a majority of businesses haven’t considered access to external data sources yet. When we begin to question how to enrich and improve data, one of the fundamental capabilities of this process is by integrating external third-party data sources, such as weather, crime or other open data sources. 

Businesses need to have an understanding of what they need to do to make the process worthwhile, and ensure they have the correct capabilities before they start. A common first approach for many organisations is to build from scratch and make it their own, rather than considering the buyer approaches where you look at what’s out there, explore the marketplace and transform existing data to use within the business, rather than starting from the ground up. 

If they can’t combine different sources of data quickly and cost-effectively together, they won’t move forward. It makes sense to digitally transform an organisation if it is going to make use of what’s already out there, as being able to tap in and share other work and insights will make the exercise worthwhile and cost-effective. With combinations of solutions available in the marketplace that can accelerate the process by providing the necessary building blocks, it’s time to transform the digital transformation process. 

Data responsibility 

There remains a disconnect between IT teams and businesses’ impressions about what it means to provide the data. If both parties are not aligned with the same aims of the business, the project could stall at the first hurdle. Instead, organisations need to bridge the divide and encourage stronger collaboration between all stakeholders. When businesses realise where those holes are in their structure, it’s key to get people involved to solve those challenges. 

This involves change on three levels; personnel, cultural and technological. Who’s responsible for this chain? Whose action is it? How do we bring these teams together? The business might be storing a lot of data, but how can it be accessed, interrogated and made useful? How will the business’ data goals be defined? 

Typically, the digital transformation initiative comes from the top in the organisation. In order to get your business on board, you have to make a very clear case of what the benefits are. Employees need to trust that improvements will be made for them by doing this, rather than just dictating the plan. Digital transformation is a change programme, which impacts all aspects of the business. You therefore have to approach it in the same way that you would approach any change project – with clear objectives and an agreed process of identifying how you’re going to get value from data. With a compelling case, you have a much better chance of carrying it through with buy in from all stakeholders. 

Data and objective identification:

You can’t embark on a digital transformation initiative without a concept – you’re condemning the project to failure if the business is not engaged properly with the process before you start. In order to yield business benefit from data, organisations must identify the areas that will realise the most benefits. Even if they’re hypothetical, there must be measurable ambitions in place or milestones for this journey, so that there is an understanding of what you’re going to do, and what you want to get out of it. Or if those ambitions weren’t achieved, why not? What steps need to be taken next time? 

Organisations have to be able to collect the data and assess whether they can achieve their business objectives from that data. But a goal of just ‘digital transformation’, ‘digitising data’ or ‘making more money’ will never translate into a concrete business case. Goals need to be specific and measurable in order to determine the project roadmap and for success to be evaluated. 

More importantly, you have to understand where the data is in your organisation and what it’s being used for, before you start the process of transformation. The whole supply chain needs to be aware of the transformation and the demands that are going to be in place. You’ve got to be very open about this process, because there will be people who you haven’t thought of that might be impacted by the changes you’re making.

With easy access, a connected team and clear objectives, companies can have a clear outline of what it is they set out to achieve in their digital transformation, how they expect to make this transition with the data available, and who can take on what role in this process.