Even casual observers of the business world will understand the increasing importance of data. The biggest companies on the globe, including Amazon and Netflix, have long relied on internal and external data to drive their business decisions, and now it seems like the rest of the planet is beginning to catch up. According to MyCustomer, big data analytics has become one of the top three IT priorities for businesses.
To say that data is having a trendy moment would be underselling it; in today’s world, data is much more than just a valuable asset. It’s the most powerful currency on earth, capable of making or breaking businesses of all sizes.
In this blog, we’ll look at just how and why data has become an indispensable tool for growing your business, as well as how the threats to mishandling data can result in data leakage (LINK to ‘What is data leakage and how do you prevent it?’ blog when live) or data breaches.
It informs decisions
You can think of data as digital knowledge. And in the business world, knowledge is key. You can use refined data to shape the direction of your organisation. With correct data collection and analysis, you are on your way to having the equivalent of a roadmap towards success.
And you can proceed with confidence since data-driven decisions are backed by evidence rather than intuition. Your organisation could become successful without data insights, but that would make the task more difficult and unnecessarily so.
The challenge that yours and many other organisations face is finding ways to distinguish valuable data from filler data, of which there is a lot — in fact, most data is worthless. But with the right data, the sky’s your limit.
In a survey done by Deloitte, 49% of respondents stated that their business made better decisions based on data.
It prevents small issues from beginning big ones
It’s much easier to prevent problems rather than try to fix them later on when they’ve become so big that consequences are inevitable. Data can allow your organisation to identify small issues and potential problems early on, which can prevent occurrences such as data leakage from happening.
Utilising data for quality monitoring and anomaly detection can allow your business to take a proactive, rather than reactive approach, to your challenges. In the most extreme cases, data can prevent your organisation from experiencing a full-blown crisis that may jeopardise its ability to continue.
It enhances customer understanding
Large businesses have always wanted to know about their customer’s behaviour. The more your organisation understands its customers, the better it can meet their needs. In the past, businesses relied on feedback forms, which only told a small part of the customer’s story at the best of times and, at its worst, presented an incorrect view of the audience.
With data-driven customer analytics, your organisation can gain valuable insights into the habits and trends of its target audience. Having an insight into the important parts of your customer relationships, such as customer churn, allows your organisation to make decisions ahead of time.
It’s valuable
Perhaps the most credible evidence about the value of data is that it’s increasingly in demand for criminals and can result in attacks such as data breaches. There can be significant consequences to a data breach (and, to a lesser extent, data leakage), including heavy financial impacts, loss of consumer trust and employee turnover.
Even minor data breaches can result in the loss of thousands of pounds. As such, your business must take preventative measures to keep sensitive data safe and secure. With cyber criminals using increasingly advanced tactics to unlawfully gain access to company data, businesses need to adopt similarly advanced protective measures.
It helps keep track of performance
Your organisation needs to have KPIs and other measures to understand performance levels and to set targets. Data can allow your business to establish benchmarks that set the tone for the performance. Equally, once those baselines have been set, you can utilise the data to make decisions that will help surpass those benchmarks.
It helps you spot trends
Both internal and external data are valuable. Internal data will show you how well your organisation is working. External data will tell what’s happening in the wider world, such as changing customer trends, industry moves, and information relating to the supply chain. By analysing these types of data sets, you can make decisions and position your business within the broader context of your industry and audience expectations. It’s another pathway towards growth.
Protect your data with Zero Trust Solutions
If you’re looking to improve your company’s data and IT infrastructure security in 2023, then get in touch with us. By implementing Zero Trust Architectures, you can have peace of mind that your IT security is robust while ensuring that you’re in line with security regulations.