analytics benefit

You are part of the C-Suite at a large CPG player. You understand and appreciate that you need to be analytics-driven with your decision-making. Over a period, your firm has already spent a lot of money on different data sources, data warehouses, et al. You are keen to make more confident, precise and timely decisions, using all that data.

How Does Data Analytics Benefit the US Economy

analytics benefit

Share of senior US executives saying 10% or more of their companies growth will be related to data analytics
share of senior

However, when actually trying to access and leverage the relevant data, you have probably been disappointed with results. Chances are, you are posing the same questions as many of our clients have been:

“Hey I don’t have the luxury to wait for beautiful dashboards; can you quickly give me something to help with decision-making?”

“I really don’t know which data source to believe; but I need my strategy plans for next year defined ASAP”

“You worked on so many projects with us; which data-set is telling us the truth?”

To handle these issues, Data Harmonization becomes critical.

What is it that data harmonization helps achieve – for the firm?

Simply put, Data Harmonization is all about creating a “Single Source of Truth”. For more details, refer to our earlier write-up here . It gives you a lot of advantages. Some of the most relevant ones being:

  • Single window view of business performance
  • Single window view of financial information
  • Single window view of everything and anything which makes business sense and supports ongoing decision-making

The benefits organizations and its people can derive from knowing their ‘TRUE’ data are many; but the bottom line is that once everybody sees the same data and believes in it, there are endless opportunities to steer your business on the highway to success.

It does become a critical step if you are interested in using predictive analytics.

How does Data Harmonization help you?

  • Be more confident about your decisions – Since the cleansing, consistency, etc. have already been taken care of, you can completely rely on the sanctity of the data – for your decisions. The “doubts” have been removed, so to say. This becomes a critical first step in using any form of predictive analytics – which eventually brings more strength and confidence to your decisions.
  • Make Decisions Faster – Once you have a “Single Source of Truth” – one that is updated “live” or at least, regularly – things get smoother and faster. There is no need to run around, or re-verify, or re-hash data. You can access the requisite information fast, and jump into the decision quickly. Speed of decision-making will invariably improve response to market changes as well.
  • Learn Better; Act Smarter – You may use harmonized data (or the concept) for sales planning, as an example, to start with. As the system evolves over time with more relevant data inputs, it becomes far easier and quicker to replicate such decision-making for other business areas. As usage and adoption increases, the systems becomes a robust knowledge repository being accessed by multiple stakeholders. All this enables you, as the CXO, to become agile, flexible and the best in the game.

To fully leverage the power of Predictive Analytics, and make better decisions, several pieces need to fall in place. Many initiatives need to be driven. Data Harmonization is one of the primary steps to take.

Authored by Imran Saeed  – CPG Expert and Director – Analytics at Absolutdata, along with Jasmeet Sraw , Manager – Client Services at Absolutdata.

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