Data Analysis and Quality: The insights you didn’t know you needed to implement effective business strategies

Data analysis and quality are key to anyone working in IT and Digital. Have you ever counted how many times a day you look up information on your smartphone? Any time we need to make a decision, whether it is looking for the fastest route, comparing the various prices of a product we want to buy, or whatever, as if by unconditioned reflex, we take the phone out of our pocket and check. “I’ve just seen a cozy restaurant… Let’s go and try it!” “Why not! But let me check the reviews first”.

We are constantly looking for news, information, numbers, opinions, prices… In short, truly everything…

It is a fact that nowadays we have direct access to an enormous amount of information catalogued and indexed specifically for each one of us. Nevertheless, we are not really aware of it and we use this possibility automatically, mostly without paying attention to it.

This is because the data we see is becoming more and more relevant to our research, more accurate and better organized, thus gaining our trust over time and changing our habits to the point that it has become essential to our choices.

In other words, this data is increasingly useful.

The use of data within companies: small bricks to build big strategies

Even within companies, the continuous interaction with increasingly complex data and information has evolved, becoming fundamental for their growth and positioning within a competitive market.

Along with the amount of data and its nature, the tools used to navigate through the information have also evolved exponentially, making analytical processes more interactive and effective.

Let’s get to the relationship between quantity and quality of the information and ask ourselves a question: To what extent can information be considered truly reliable?

According to a new survey by KPMG, “Just one-third (33 percent) of CEOs have a high-level of trust in the accuracy of their Data & Analytics […] and 29 percent have limited trust or active distrust of their organization’s use of D&A.” 

This means that the higher the stakes, the more necessary accuracy and reliability of sources become, since this data is the basis for business decisions and therefore play a key role in the success or failure of the implemented strategies.

We should also keep in mind that the amount of data to be analyzed is growing and growing. It is estimated in fact that 90% of the data on the planet has been generated in the last 2 years.

How to effectively navigate a sea of data without being shipwrecked 😉

What aspects should then be considered to achieve truly effective analytical systems?

• Analyses are all the more meaningful and valuable the more they combine different data sources and data of uneven granularity. Analyzing these correlations is important, but the complexity of these systems should not compromise their quality, which consequently becomes the real critical point;

• Not only should we put together, analyze and process this big amount of information, but we should also do it quickly, as decision makers should be able to do it before their competitors;

• The need for so much information in so little time is in direct conflict with accuracy and precision. 

So how do you find the right trade-off between time, data and accuracy?

There is no simple and immediate solution. From a technical point of view, it is necessary to combine competence, discipline, controls and expertise. It is not by chance that quality by design has become our motto. From a functional point of view, all data governance processes must be well designed and a person responsible for each data source should be always identified. 

For this reason, the best result is achieved thanks to dialogue and interaction between supplier and customer, which over time becomes an established collaboration.

As building trust with customers is a key step for Trueblue, the listening phase becomes crucial to provide the most appropriate solution, through which customers can achieve their objectives easily and effectively.

To support all this, thanks to our experience and the know-how gained over the years, in the analytical field we provide ready-to-use models tailored to the pharmaceutical market. Our Enterprise Data Management solution easily supports business processes such as market segmentation, sales governance and customer plan execution. Thanks to a single, fully scalable platform, it is possible to successfully undertake an analysis path for the effectiveness and sustainability of corporate strategies.

When we talk about data analysis and quality, we are facing a scenario that can become risky for companies if they don’t follow the right direction. That is why a technology partner able to guide them through this path becomes essential to get the best results out of data, which in this way becomes a real “treasure chest of gold”.

Stefano Caldrer – BI Team Leader