The Key to Data-Driven Decision-Making

Tons of data are generated every second, and a huge percentage of that data is not being harnessed and efficiently maximized. One of the reasons businesses find it challenging to maximize the use of data is the complexity and enormity of the data obtained—usually called "big data." 

Big data is a collection of huge volumes of data, some of which are structured and most of which are unstructured. This article explains the main keys to making data-driven decisions and how to leverage trusted data. 

So what does it mean to make "data-driven" decisions? It means: 

• Collecting or gathering data

• Analyzing the data to derive important facts, patterns, and insights

• Making use of these inferences to make better, more quality-oriented, and objective-oriented decisions. 

"Data-Driven Decision-Making" is an organizational decision-making process based on trusted data rather than on assumptions or observations.

When it comes to having good judgment and making clear and good decisions, it's paramount to gather data as they are stores of value containing facts that can be trusted. 

Making data-driven decisions removes the problem of being biased or working with false assumptions in a decision-making process. When leaders in an organization make key decisions based on gut feelings rather than data, it could lead to poor judgment and bad decision-making. 

Why is it important to make data-driven decisions?

• It helps optimize your business processes by using insights to develop better processes to deliver more results.

• It improves efficiency and effectiveness by helping you identify methods that are less effective, efficient, and not very productive in terms of meeting your business objectives.

• It leads to better data management and provides a simple way to visualize large data sets, which can be referred to at any point in time. 

• Data-driven decision-making processes can be used to streamline work processes and optimize the service delivery of employees.

How can you apply data-driven decision-making processes?

• Gathering data from market surveys to discover the exact features, products, or services that customers need is a good start.

• Collecting user feedback while testing a product or service to determine customer satisfaction levels and possible issues that need to be resolved before product launch. 

• Analyzing a product's market performance to understand how it fits into a target market and forecasting its potential performance when launched.

• Collecting data on demographics and gaining insights on potential business opportunities or threats. 

Implementing data-driven decision-making models to solve problems, automate processes, improve operations, or derive insights depends on a number of factors, such as the objectives of your organization, the source and type of the data available, and the quality of such data. 

The best results from data-driven decision-making come from a good selection of the right data analysis tools that accurately gather, measure, analyze, and visualize data. Usually, an expert in data analysis, which includes everything from data collection, cleaning, analysis, modeling, and visualization, should handle these processes. 

At Guide Technologies, we offer ERP solutions and business solution tools to help you make better data-driven decisions. By utilizing the right tools and expertise, you will be able to make data-driven decisions that will propel your business forward. 

Leveraging the abundance of digital insights derived from the data and investing in business intelligence solutions can help you make quality decisions that will result in growth, improved efficiency, and innovation.