It's no secret that data, and the technology that powers it, has seen massive change and growth over the last decade. Keeping up can feel absolutely overwhelming, and without the right data strategy, it is easy to get caught in paralysis. Putting the pieces in place to wrangle your company's Big Data ecosystem is a difficult endeavor - but it's vitally important to staying competitive in today's data-driven landscape.

In this webinar, Helen Tanner, Founder & CEO of Data Cubed, and Carlos Calderon, Head of Solutions at MetaRouter, discuss how you can remain grounded in a well-formed data plan. From ensuring that the right people are in place, to aligning your strategy to business goals, they provide the tips and tricks you need to harness the power of your data.

Some of the webinar's key takeaways can be found below. Check out the full webinar for great insights into why your data strategy needs to change!

Understand the Data Basics

Don't let the tech-oriented folks in your organization overwhelm you. That being said, know the differences between raw data lakes, structured data warehouses, data marts and databases. If you're wondering if you have Big Data on your hands, the use of these tools and implementation of data collection that occurs every minute or second is likely a sign that you do. To store that data, your options are on the "cloud" which is where most data is stored, while on-prem solutions are only really for legacy or highly nuanced reasons.

It's Normal to Feel Uneasy Towards Your Data Strategy

It's not about the length of the document, or all about the technology. While you may think you have a strategy in place, one sign of a lack of a cohesive strategy is random acts of innovation being performed with data. Another sign is that the data you are collecting isn't actually changing anyone's decisions within your organization. Is anyone starting or stopping activities based on data, rather than simply viewing and reporting on it?

How Do You Create a Data Strategy?

The first step is simply walking away from your data. Finding patterns and trends is exciting, but won't be very actionable if you can't get a wider view of your data strategy. Next, you need to consider your business objectives. Your data strategy should closely align with your business strategy. For example, are you trying to retain customers- or acquire new ones? Then, consider the metrics that will inform you of your goal progress. Finally, let your business requirements drive the next steps: mapping, cleaning, transforming, cleansing, analyzing and visualizing data.

Finding a Single Source of Truth

Finding your organization's source of truth isn't about getting all of your data into a single table. You can find sources of truth in the phases of your data strategy implementation. While doing so, pay attention to the 3 As: Accurate, Accessible, Actionable. If your data doesn't meet those standards, then it can't serve as a source of truth.

Again, business requirements will drive where your sources of truth lie and how different pieces of data will be aggregated together. For example, do you need to view your data per customer to better understand customer behavior, or group your customers' behavior together so you can understand product usage?

Why Should Your Strategy Change?

Your business, technology, and customers are changing all the time. You need to keep up with disruption as it happens. Internally, your business may introduce a new product or service.

How might you need to expand your data tracking to account for the new product and measure success? Externally, customers can change expectations, competitors can enter the market and/or change their offering, and legal and regulatory action can significantly impact how you collect and interpret data. The technology landscape is always changing, and the fastest or cheapest option on the market a year ago may no longer be your best option. When is the right time to migrate technology providers and products? These are questions that you want to consider as you think about the right timing for a data strategy shift.

Watch the webinar to uncover additional insights on how data strategies are formed, altered, and measured. If you want to chat with MetaRouter on how you can prepare your customer data strategy and tracking infrastructure for the future, contact us and let's set some time to chat.

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