Great insights from Scott Houchin regarding data.
To harness and convert data into stronger business strategies and overall profitability, approach data practices with a holistic integration of people, process and technology, following three key steps: collection, strategy and alignment.
A data strategy is the first step in becoming a data-driven organization. Setting up the structure and expertise of the organization has to start before jumping into data strategies. This can happen outside of the confines of IT. The business leaders should own the data, as long as they have the expertise and knowledge to do so. Try to set up procedures to be agile with your processes. The longer it takes to implement changes in data, the less of a competitive advantage your organization has. It will also be near impossible to become data-driven if there is a constant wait for data to be delivered to the end users.
Collection
Start with a clear understanding of project goals and requirements to guide the collection process. Establishing this helps ensure data collected is “smart” or meaningful. Collection shouldn’t narrowly focus on new data. Many organizations already have a goldmine of owned data that should be tapped. To make the most of historical data, scan legacy systems, such as social pages or purchase history, map findings back to strict uniform terminology, and fill in the gaps where data is missing across the organization.
Having a process for collecting new data and examining historical data up front ensures quick and accurate collection, minimizing time spent on governance practices and carving down unnecessary data sets.
There is a treasure trove of data already being collected in most organizations. Ensure that this data is being properly collected and stored. The goal is to ensure as many people can get to the data as possible, data democratization. If data is stored and is hard to get to, takes complicated joins and there are no tools available to the organization to easily access the data, then more has to be done to reach these goals.
Strategy
Once data is collected, work with data-marketing specialists to analyze and align functional uses and marketing’s business goals. This requires a team of analysts and strategists who have both high levels of industry and domain expertise to identify sources, manage collection and road-map operations processes.
Teams of analysts can help organizations identify, collect and integrate data from sources and channels, like web traffic, Facebook, Salesforce, etc., into a proprietary database. Once established on a datamart, it can be integrated into current campaign tools through human labor. Having this data integrated into marketing tools gives brand-side marketers the insights to improve customer experiences, measure performance of digital assets, predict customer decision stages, etc.
Data should not be financial focused, it should be customer focused for the greatest impact on ROI. Marketers have to own their data. Hiring analysts and data domain expertise is imperative for success. If ownership lies outside of the marketing resources, there is a much higher likelihood of failure. Remember, CMO's and CIO's don't speak the same language.
Alignment
Another example can be demonstrated with IT and marketing. Marketers spend more on technology than some IT departments now, but need alignment to ensure data is stored, platforms are integrated and in-house technical support is available. Alignment between these two departments appeases both marketer’s need for autonomy and IT’s domain over platforms, allowing for the integration of datamarts into other units’ datasets from the onset.
IT is still very critical for success with this strategy. Just because IT does not own the data, doesn't mean they aren't extremely important. IT needs to ensure the network is working, data is flowing and collection tools are working. They also need to be support for when things break and they should control the access to the systems. Make sure IT understands the goals and agree on the toolsets being chosen, so they can support them.