What is Data Strategy and Why Every Company Needs Data Strategy
Nowadays many companies worldwide invest a lot of resources in Data Science and AI projects. Undoubtedly, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence can bring immense benefits for organizations in any sector: from banking and Retail to Logistics and Healthcare, and this is not the limit. However, about 85% of companies do not get expected return when applying those initiatives for a simple reason: they are not aligned with the business goals. When diving into data, businesses often neglect the holistic organizational context and ignore the consistency of the actions.
To make sure your initiatives achieve your organizational goals and all the efforts are not in vain, Data Strategy must be the first step before starting developing any data-related project.
What is Data Strategy?
Data Strategy is crucial for any business that wants to invest in Data Science. It is a roadmap that shows you how, when, and where to apply data to your business. Data Strategy helps you oversee the big picture of a company, the people, culture, means, and technology at the same time. Based on your strategic organizational goals, it provides you with the solutions that your company should invest in to ensure that your goals are accomplished and to achieve the highest financial return.
In other words, Data Strategy aligns unique business strategy, stakeholders' needs and wants with the technology to help you understand which Data Science and AI initiatives the company should invest in to increase the chances of success on your digital transformation journey.
How to Start with a Data Strategy?
Realize the Importance Upfront: Needs and Goals
You already know that many companies benefit from utilizing their data. But you need to realize that this utilization is critical specifically for your organization. What are your company’s goals? Why do you want to invest in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence? What are the end results that you are trying to achieve? Maybe it can help better understand your customers’ needs and effectively target them or other Data Science use cases that can benefit your company?
Why is Having a Company's Goals so Crucial for Data Strategy?
When an organization is aligned, the people in the company work in the same direction (long-term business strategy) towards the same goals. Having them defined can extremely help you on the way to developing Data Strategy.
However, long-term vision is not enough. The next step is to turn your business strategy into specific goals and break them down into measurable objectives and actions that employees should take to achieve the overall goal so that there is no room for different interpretations.
In a data-driven company vision, goals and the state of day-to-day operations can be measured and driven with data. These measurements are necessary to build a successful Data Strategy, and then the results will be further evaluated against previously defined indicators.
In the following article, we'll walk you through five steps to developing a successful, solid and reliable Data Strategy that will make your business thrive.