“If only we could monetise this data!”; from sales, accounting transactions to emails and chat logs and myriad types of other data, when harnessed effectively it provides vital insight that helps businesses succeed. However, despite the widely recognised benefits of harnessing and analysing data — 91% of top executives surveyed by Forbes Insight had seen an increase in revenues since using data and analytics — less than half (44%) of business leaders see themselves as advanced or leaders in data and analytics.
Added to this, the last decade or so has seen a big push towards focusing on stability rather than reliability. Regulated industries are no longer chiefly concerned over failing – banks, for example, aren’t worried about running out of cash having shored up by balance sheets following the 2008 crash. However, given the antiquated nature of technology platforms large banks rely on, there is a big concern that the fundamental core technology will start to fail; resulting in companies grinding to a complete holt. While many organisations have been focused on chasing digitalisation to improve customer experience, they have forgotten about the back-end infrastructure and the important data that it collects, stores and analyses.
As such, although a hugely valuable source of business insight, data can be a ticking time bomb if mismanaged or worse ignored entirely. Poorly analysed data can lead to incorrect insights which not only waste time but leaves huge amount of money on the table.
Learn to deploy DataOps to better your business
The rising number of data breaches and mis-statements of numbers in recent years has highlighted the huge reputational and financial expense that mismanaging data can result in. The consequences can be extensive as the well publicised events of 2018 can attest to. Becoming lax with any form of data is a danger that all companies face and can result in a diminishment of trust from consumers and major disruptions to fundamental processes; which ultimately leads to falling sales as customers choose to go elsewhere.
However, when harnessed and analysed in a reliable and robust manner using DataOps processes, companies are able to understand and optimise their systems to improve both customer experience and their bottom lines. DataOps, brings about a cultural change in data management, can be implemented by multiple teams across an organisation to improve quality and reduce the cycle time of delivering consistent data; providing real time insights which enables faster and more accurate decision making. What we see when instilling a DataOps culture provides the same reliability in engineering systems and governance applied to data that is has historically been applied to software development in DevOps across most large organisations. Working with data within a DataOps culture, data can be transferred between teams and systems without causing problems in the deployment of critical updates or the management of data pipelines.
Even companies that are not intrinsically data driven or data centric can still benefit from deploying DataOps when it comes to getting the most out of their data. As an Agile way of working, DataOps deploys and manages data-intensive applications and solutions. It also provides insight into the reliability of data solutions , aligning business needs with the strategic imperative deploy new features fast whilst maintaining reliability.
While some companies may not have to deal with manipulating huge data sets or analysing data on a daily basis at the moment, with the amount of data set to rise exponentially thanks to connected devices and digital-first strategies, it’s important to be aware of the data that could be generated and how to best manage it and turn it into an advantage before it’s too late.
As with many things, data can be invaluable but when neglected and mishandled it can have huge consequences. When considering data, companies need to be able to manage it effectively to provide usable insights. Implementing an effective DataOps culture ensures data is used to its full potential to develop and drive forward essential business processes. Those companies that can protect and exploit their data effectively, will have a huge competitive advantage.
