This article about data revolution is the first of a three-part series, the later two focus on enabling a data-driven culture and the factors and techniques which can be implemented. Contact Adrian McGarva at adrianmcgarva@pfsconsulting.com.au or Lynton Norris at lyntonnorris@pfsconsulting.com.au to find out more.
Many businesses, governments and other organisations have been experiencing a data revolution enabled by technological advancements for some time. This has largely been due to the ready availability of off-the-shelf white-labelled data collection systems with low up-front costs. These have enabled even small organisations to use powerful systems to collect information which they can analyse relatively quickly.
These improvements in technology have enabled the organisations that harness them to better understand issues in their own operation. They can then make smarter decisions faster, potentially increasing their competitive advantage. In other cases they are able to use the data pro-actively to change regulation, funding arrangements or policy that govern their operations in a beneficial way.
For organisations that see the advantages of becoming data driven, understanding the challenges, opportunities and predictive techniques available is key to effective implementation. We focus here on the challenges and opportunities with predictive techniques covered in detail in a later article.
Challenges
- The ability to initiate and support data analytics activities. This requires training staff and potentially seeking help from external resources.
- Democratising an organisation’s data holdings to achieve new insights. In many organisations, the data is either locked down for security reasons or it is simply too hard to access for business users. Often those business users are precisely the ones that could gain the most value from the data and are best placed to determine what questions to ask.
- Organisations need to understand how to free up that data.
Opportunities
- A technology-rich reporting and audit model provides for greater thoroughness, efficiency and accuracy. Organisations that manually collect and analyse data cannot hope to compete with those that use technology platforms.
- With technology much larger and more scalable data sets can be leveraged. This makes insights more accurate, and over time, more trustworthy, letting you make the right decisions at the right time.
- New business opportunities. For many organisations, the ability to analyse data and extract insights provides a competitive advantage. Gaining strong capabilities in this area lets these organisations create new business opportunities and revenue streams.
The future of data
Organisations that efficiently collect relevant data and adjust their behaviour on the basis of data-driven decisions are more likely to be able to complete for the most valuable business segments. Elimination of cross-subsidies and improved processes will ultimately make them the most successful organisations – a trend which has been well evidenced across industries as diverse as marketing, insurance, supermarkets and online retail.
Actuaries go beyond simple data visualisation or “BI”, we have unrivalled training in mathematical and statistical techniques as well as a deep understanding of pitfalls.
At PFS Consulting we pride ourselves on building strong understandings of our clients’ needs and how data can help deliver them solutions.
To find out how you can sharpen your competitive edge contact Adrian McGarva on 02 9225 6100.
