6 Reasons Why Your 2019 Data Strategy Needs Data Discovery

A staggering 36 percent of British employees believe that the time they spend at work is unproductive. This is understandable when you consider that the majority of the working day is spent dealing with interruptions – countless emails, enquiries, impromptu meetings, or – of course – searching for information that should be readily to hand.

In today’s data-driven society, the ability to make key decisions relies on having the right insights at the right time. For organizations looking to access this insight, data discovery solutions hold the answer. Data discovery solutions allow you to use your data in real-time, providing you with the ability to proactively find the answers you need when you need them the most. As organizations grow, so does their data estate, often leaving users with unwieldy and uncontrollable data in fragmented and siloed locations around the organization. Locating data is often time consuming, impacting on employee’s productivity, which can have huge consequences. Imagine, for example the impact your organization would face if the inefficiencies in your processes delayed a project and resulted in you bringing an idea to market after a rival organization. Data discovery solutions can help you to improve your business and even remain one step ahead of your competitors.

Here’s why you can’t afford to not invest in a data discovery tool in 2019.

1. Increase productivity

Last year’s CFO Indicator report stated that only 17 percent of the finance team’s time is dedicated to strategic activities. Many find their working day being taken over by heavily time-consuming tasks, such as manual data processing and reporting. Users often find themselves involved in locating data from numerous sources, analyzing the data to see if it contains the correct information, and then, finally constructing a report for the data to be further analyzed. This time-heavy process doesn’t account for data possibly containing errors, which would involve even more time that could be better spent interpreting the data and acting on its insight.

Another benefit of a data discovery solution is its ability to automate the end-to-end process, allowing your employee’s time to be focused on outcomes instead of gathering data. To add to the beauty of data discovery, users are able to access data in a de-centralized format. This means data can be accessed by anyone in the company (with access granted), anywhere and at any time – providing everyone with access to the most up to date data.

2. Unlock actionable insight

Empower your users by allowing them to self-service their data requirements, helping to reduce their reliance on the IT department who are often tasked with creating reports and compiling data extracts. Allow individual users to not only gain insights into your organization, but to also explore and investigate them as well, helping to speed up the time for necessary action to be taken. Help your employees to identify and measure inefficiencies within the business and gain the insight required to make better decisions to benefit your organization.

3. Improve data accuracy

Automation is key to the future of improved efficiency and provides one of the most cost-effective ways to save time and money. Data is no different. The automation data discovery solutions provide help to reduce human error and create a standardized approach to data entry and data cleansing, all of which can help in creating efficiencies. As data is entered into the system it is run through a series of data cleansing algorithms to identify errors and anomalies, highlighting issues such as misspelt names, incorrect dates, incomplete account numbers, etc. flagging it for action before it is entered into the main system. This dramatically reduces errors in the final reports produced, meaning your team spend less time finding and fixing mistakes.

4. Evidence based management

Losing sight of KPIs means that you are more likely to spend time on activities that don’t contribute to your goals. Data discovery solutions are able to track and monitor customized KPIs, helping your organization stay on target and continuously monitor performance. This new insight provides organizations with the agility required to improve plans and processes if required or change direction.

In real-time, users are able to track everything from efficiency and innovation levels to regulatory compliance, risk management, customer service, people development, plus much more in dynamic dashboards allowing a real-time reminder, ensuring your organization is up to date on its current position at all times.

5. Testing the future

How often do you wish you could predict the future?

Data discovery solutions make forecasting a reality. Companies are now able to test models and scenarios before using them in the real world. Quickly and easily highlight relationships between different entities within your data, enabling you to test different ‘what if’ scenarios, based on data you already have access to.

For example, let’s say you are looking to release a new online app targeted at 30-40 year olds and want to test the likely take-up rate. Data discovery solutions provide you with the ability to test your theory in a virtual environment, providing you with the insight required to either apply some tweaks or redesign your plan.

These new insights allow your employees to make business decisions based on validated evidence rather than ‘gut-instinct’, helping you to stay one step ahead of your competition. As an added bonus you are able to bring your thoughts and theories to life using graphs and visualizations, helping you to explain new trends clearly to your customers and organization.

6. Instant insight

When we talk about efficiency, time to insight has to be a number one priority. Data discovery solutions are quicker to implement than traditional systems, meaning your employees will benefit from access to new insights straight away. Organizations are 5x more likely to make faster-than-average decisions with access to the right data, helping you to react to market changes faster than your competitors. The ability for your users to self-service their data requirements with minimal training helps to speed up time to insight.

If you are looking to establish a culture of data-driven decision-making and combine statistical analysis with human intuition to provide your organization with valuable insights for growth, data discovery needs to be part of your 2019 strategy.