If your data initiatives cannot demonstrate desired results or the ability to scale, it is a critical sign that your data strategy needs help. 

A solid data strategy is vital to an agile business’s success. It aims to answer the questions behind business operations across decision-making, planning, processes, and technology to make goals easily achievable. 

Businesses face challenges in data reliability and being able to drive insights from raw data. Companies that neglect these inefficiencies in managing the data can fail miserably. Consequently, more financial losses are incurred due to these inefficiencies. 

Companies are investing more in their data initiatives to gain a competitive edge. In contrast, many do not use business data to their fullest potential. Organizations must ensure their data management is accurate, accountable, and reliable to deliver the ultimate data value. 

To capitalize on the business opportunities, you need a structured approach to data management that will speed up decision-making, help acquire more customers and, most importantly, retain satisfied customers. 

It’s crucial to identify signs in data strategy which will allow you to overcome obstacles and build a data-driven roadmap. In this article, we’ll look into the four vital signs you need to look for to make your data initiatives effective and have a more significant impact.  

Sign #1: Lack of data quality

When a company faces data issues, the first step is to check the quality of the data generated over time. Data quality issues are caused by inefficient handling of duplicate, incomplete, and unstructured data.

Businesses face quality issues due to inconsistent data formats, errors, and incorrect and outdated information from unverified sources. These issues can cause severe risks and damage to the company’s integrity. 

Implementing data quality standards to ensure data is collected, stored, and analyzed according to those standards can help maintain data quality. 

Sign #2: Inadequate data security

Lack of data security is a threat that could jeopardize the confidentiality and integrity of business data. Data security aims to protect data from unauthorized access, disclosure, disruption, modification, misuse, and destruction. This includes preventing data breaches, ransomware, and others that can corrupt your data. 

However, negligence or unintentional disclosure of private information brings most of these attacks. Organizations, big to small, require data security to ensure the data is accessible to people who need it. A business needs proper data security measures and backup plans to avoid breaches and cyber-attacks. High degrees of data security are necessary for several businesses to comply with data protection laws.

An attack using ransomware where the hacker encrypts a victim’s data and demands payment to unlock it. Its effects can spread instantly and infect the backup servers. As a result of such an attack, the organization may lose vital data. Phishing is another common threat encountered by businesses. These attacks may appear to be emailed from trustworthy sources, such as banks or financial institutions.

Data security policies ensure that data is stored and transmitted securely. You need a system to review the existing policy to protect the data assets. To eradicate inefficient practices and consistently monitor networks for vulnerabilities that will help streamline data security. System audits can minimize data security threats and ensure the organization is adhering to regulatory requirements. 

Sign #3: Lack of data governance

Data governance is integral to the data strategy. It is a process of managing the use, accessibility, security, and integrity of the data assets. Data governance ensures the data is trustworthy and doesn’t get misused. Establishing data governance policies and procedures is the right way to overcome this challenge and create a data culture. 

Without effective data governance, a business can face inconsistent validation leading to data quality issues. Businesses must have greater accountability and be in control of data privacy regulations. This influences the long-term impact. Poor quality data can decrease the level of trust in the data. A data governance framework is beneficial in balancing data collection, consistent validation, and management as it helps optimize operations and data-driven decisions across the organization. 

Sign #4: Lack of effective data analytics

Today, most businesses use some kind of data analytics to support their data initiatives. Despite being stuck with inefficient data processing and unable to get actionable insights.

Companies adopt efficient data visualization, timely insights, and accurate answers to questions, leading to more clarity. Data analytics aims to help organizations optimize their performance for strategic decisions and maximize profits.

While analytics techniques and reporting can be widely automated, ensure resources have the necessary skills to analyze the data to get the most out of it.  With effective data analytics and skilled resources, one can quickly humanize complex and resource-intensive data to be utilized across the organization.

Evaluating your data initiatives

Things can go wrong anytime, but you’re not alone. All 4 of these signs are preventable. Enterprises that adopt a systematic approach have clarity over their data challenges and prioritize better. As companies grow, they need to assess their data initiatives consistently. 

The data should stay aligned with business strategy, analytics, governance, and overall data management. Failing to recognize and address these alarming signs can limit the potential of how data is utilized within the organization. 

All these signs are interconnected. Bringing people, processes, and technology together can make them analytically forward. And it becomes easier for them to point out the errors and identify subtle signs quickly. With solid strategies, your data operations can be more systematic. That means you can seamlessly analyze and improve efforts driven by meaningful insights in a fraction of a minute. 

Xtract.io can help your organization stay aligned with best practices for all data initiatives. Our data specialists can assist in assessing your current roadmap and building effective data management. So, your business stays vigilant, enabling long-term success. 

Do you want to learn how to implement a data-driven culture that significantly improves ROI in your initiatives? Drop us a line, and we’d love to take you through the steps to generate the best results! 

Author

Asmitha is a Content Marketing Specialist. She helps businesses leverage content and storytelling to build a compelling online presence. She enjoys traveling and hanging out at libraries when she is not at work.

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