Data experiences are all about delivering insights that work the way people do. It’s for this reason that it’s integral for data experiences to be easy to understand and useful to any individual who is part of an organisation.
The ability to spark curiosity is one of the many essential elements to driving more business impact, and data experiences have the potential to enable business leaders to inspire this curiosity in their employees and unleash new ways of thinking.
The challenges leaders of today are tackling
The pandemic forced organisations to reinvent ways of working. Generally, this meant an accelerated adoption of cloud systems as we transitioned to greater support hybrid working models. This mass reliance on cloud-based systems has also given business intelligence (BI) platforms the unique opportunity to truly change how data is gathered and analysed. Despite the advantages that cloud and BI systems bring to businesses in terms of maximising intelligence through data – it also brings another problem.
We’ve seen a recent emerging trend in employees not performing at their full potential due to the sheer number of tools and technologies at their disposal. Employees are either excited or overwhelmed by new tools introduced to them, depending on its relevance to their role. So, tools like cloud and BI systems, need to fit into an organisation’s ecosystem to gain adoption and ultimately, streamline business processes.
This is a huge challenge leaders face. They need to strike a balance between remaining progressive with the technology they adopt and overloading their teams with too many new tools. To find this balance, leaders must introduce relevant and meaningful tools to their teams to positively impact workloads. It is integral for organisations to integrate dynamic and meaningful data experiences that assist with employees’ day-to-day tasks.
The priorities of companies today
The past few years have brought unprecedented challenges and have demonstrated the uncertainty of the future. Because of this, it’s essential for organisations to remain agile, and possess the ability to adapt to frequent change.
Historically, we’ve seen organisations build data tools fully end-to-end, solving a very specific problem or set of problems. However, in order to have flexibility, companies should shift their focus towards building end-to-almost-end to ensure that they are able to respond to change quickly with little disruption. End-to-end tools are rigid, which may negatively impact business function as they make it difficult for organisations to adapt quickly to change. Tools must leave flexibility in the last mile of insight delivery.
What makes a great data experience?
A great data experience is built on being able to access relevant data, whenever and wherever you need it. What makes data relevant is different for each individual working in an organisation. For example, a professional working in sales may only need to access the data for the region they are working in, whereas someone working in a different department may need access to different or a much larger amount of data.
Similarly to what makes relevant data, the speed of accessing and method of access will vary between different employees. For example, an employee who works a hybrid role, or is travelling frequently might need to access relevant data on a mobile device rather than a laptop, but an office-based employee would probably prefer to access data on a laptop.
Harnessing the power of data can boost both an employee’s ability to make an impact, and a company’s ability to access and act on data to make meaningful change across the organisation. However, it’s essential for great data experiences to consider the needs and skills of each unique individual in order to ensure that everyone feels empowered regardless of their fluency with data. When executed correctly, data holds the key to revolutionise the decision-making process for business leaders to inspire the change the future needs.
