Any business can benefit from data, but to really harness its power you need a data strategy. Developing it doesn’t have to be a complex, long winded affair however having a well thought out plan of what you want to achieve will help you enjoy a variety of data driven benefits. Here’s a few to whet your appetite.

1. Improve decision making

Data provides clarity in an uncertain world, helping you to see things objectively. Enabling you to make more informed decisions, quicker and with confidence that you’re taking the right course of action.

2. Monitor performance

You can use data to keep track of your business by measuring it against a range of key performance indicators (KPIs). Data will provide an objective assessment of where you are and how you’re performing against plan.

3. Highlight trends

As businesses collect data over time it becomes easier to identify trends. Once you’ve identified patterns in your business you can take action to encourage those trends – or reduce their incidence.

4. Understand your stakeholders

Data helps to build a picture of your organisation’s key stakeholders (customers, suppliers, partners etc). Taking customers as an example, knowing who they are, where they are and what they like (and dislike) about your service will help you to serve them more effectively.

5. Predict the future

If you have a store of good quality, collected from varied sources you can apply predictive analytics techniques to forecast what will happen in future. There’s no 100% guarantee of accuracy – but data provides an excellent indicator.

6. Reduce risk

Having information about the environment in which you operate reduces the risk of unknown factors upsetting your plans.