Your business has finally made the first step towards digital transformation with the implementation of a business management platform or the transition of business applications to the cloud to enhance mobility and flexibility. Good job.
Perhaps you have multiple software to run and oversee your operations and are now opting for an integrated ERP suite instead. Nicely done. Whatever the case might be, there is one big question looming: what are you doing with all that business data?
Go beyond data collection with analytics
Firstly, if you are using multiple systems for your daily operations – finance, operations, HR, sales, distribution – consider connecting your operations and aggregating all that data under one system.
Next, your business systems should be able to capture information. But the data collection process is not enough. Your data needs to be aggregated, analysis-ready and accessible by all those who need it.
Data analytics helps management understand how business and target market is changing, and what steps you can take to bring your business forward. For example, market reach, customer data, social media interactions with your brand – all this data is essential and should be collected and analysed to generate actionable insights.
Digital tools such as Google Analytics offer basic user tracking activity, which is great for a start but might not be as comprehensive as you need to make an informed decision. Also, you might want to take a step back from the actual data and rely on an overview of all the business activity at a higher level.
Data analysis becomes more complex with the increasing amount of data generated daily. As your business grows, consider that you have to integrate growing data sources and applications, enforce access and security controls to different levels of information, and generate powerful insights and reports. You need an all-in-one data analytics tool.
Use dashboards to measure, optimise and report
Once you have data analytics in place, the next step is to create dashboards to visualise the most critical information at the forefront of your analytics tool. This way your business can keep track of its most relevant KPIs, whether it’s customer acquisition costs, shorter lead times, faster deliveries, or ROI.
Measuring different areas to justify transformation and proceed with optimisation is essential for any business. Your data analytics software should be able to generate insights from a baseline automatically, taking into account all the important variables.
Dashboards are essential to visualise everything that happens in your business, pinpoint the most lucrative areas, as well as determine which areas are underperforming and in dire need of improvement.
Dashboards can aggregate all this data accurately, allow for easy customisation of the relevant data for the right audience, and make reporting and decision-making faster and easier for everyone involved in the process.
Implementing data analytics tools such as Microsoft Power BI can help your business accelerate digital transformation and access business intelligence cost-effectively to generate greater results and improve profitability and business performance.
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