A four-step plan to start using your data to the fullest.

We live in a data-driven world, and if you want better business outcomes, your organization needs to be data-driven as well. But getting to a place where your data and analytics are firing on all cylinders can be a challenge. It takes a comprehensive data strategy to find the best way to collect, store, manage and use data. Even if you feel like your business already has a solid data strategy in place, you might still be leaving value on the table if your data practices are inconsistent across the organization.

Finding consistency begins with data literacy—the ability to read, understand, create and communicate data as information. Success hinges upon how well the stakeholders of your organization are able to effectively and efficiently work with data.

By 2023, data literacy will be a significant driver of business value.¹

However, data literacy is less about turning everyone at your organization into a certified data scientist; rather, it’s more about aligning across goals and outcomes, and how data will help you achieve that. This allows you to leverage the right data for the right insights, so key stakeholders feel empowered to make the right decisions more quickly.

With that in mind, here are four steps your organization can take to propel its data literacy, strategy and insights to the next level:

STEP 1: Create a data committee to drive data value 

Your first order of business should be to appoint a group of stakeholders with one mission: drive value with data. The committee should be comprised of senior leaders, from executive sponsors and domain experts to data stewards, platform experts and other contributors.

It’s important to make sure your data committee spans business lines and departments so your organization as a whole can be tightly aligned according to the best way forward for your data journey.

STEP 2: Address key topics

With your data committee selected, it’s time for your first meeting. You should focus your discussions on common challenges, lessons learned and success patterns—everyone’s understanding of your organization’s infrastructure landscape. You will also want the group to gain a high-level understanding of the data sources.

Discussing these topics will help you get a better idea of each member’s needs, opportunities and goals when it comes to data and analytics. Here are some helpful questions you can ask to get the conversation started:

• What are your department’s data and analytic goals, opportunities and challenges?
• What data do you depend on, and where and how is it stored currently?
• Do your current data initiatives align with our organization’s business priorities?
• Is there anything your department can start/stop to get into better alignment with those priorities?

STEP 3: Identify gaps

After this initial data committee meeting, you should be able to expose opportunities for improvement and identify the gaps that are keeping you from achieving them.

These can include lack of time, budget, resources and departments working in silos or ignoring data and analytics initiatives entirely. Gaps can also consider issues such as decentralized data with disparate data systems, missing data, inconsistent, misinterpreted or misunderstood data, lack of advanced data and analytics technology and even differing data terminology across departments.

Knowing what and where your organization is lacking is the best way to determine exactly what you need to use your data to the fullest.

STEP 4: Find the resources that can help you move forward

Now that you’ve gathered your data committee, talked through your goals and objectives and identified the gaps you need to overcome, it’s time to find the help you need to take action. Engaging an experienced data and analytics expert can help you bring it all together by guiding you through every step of your organization’s data journey.

Working with a data and analytics expert organization such as Onix can ensure that you have the exact cost, people, processes, infrastructure and amount of time needed to succeed. We can also help you streamline the process of creating a data strategy that works long term, avoids common roadblocks and delays and focuses on data centralization, security, automation and innovation, API integrations, scalability and more. Our proven process helps your organization to build a strong, cloud-based solution to centralize your data and move seamlessly from implementation to value.

Learn more about the Onix Analytics Modernization approach.

Onix makes the entire process as painless as possible. We can work with your team to set up a FREE one-day Discovery Workshop which includes a business and technical capability assessment to diagnose migration readiness, align leadership teams—and build a roadmap for change. Using question surveys and interactive activities, we can help you:

• Define and prioritize your business objectives.
• Explore your current infrastructure landscape.
• Get a high-level profile of your data sources.
• Identify gaps in your data strategy.
• Create a “Go Forward” action plan to close those gaps using the Onix Analytics Modernization (OAM) program.

“Data is the lifeblood of an organization.” –Rob Casper, Data Transformation Chair, Citi

The importance of data and analytics initiatives is here to stay. It’s important that everyone across your organization embraces this reality and knows how to act with it in mind. By following the steps above, you can help your organization as a whole become an evangelist for the types of data initiatives that are best for the goals and outcomes your business desires.

Finding your way in the world of data and analytics can feel daunting. But remember, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. Sign up now for a FREE one-day discovery workshop from Onix. Together, we’ll find the best way to move forward on your data journey.

[1]Top priorities for IT leadership vision for 2021 ebook, Gartner