2021: The Year of the Truly Data-Driven Company

2020 certainly has had several tricks up its sleeves. After this enduring ride that people and businesses have been on throughout most of the past year, it can be difficult to find a glimmer of optimism and normalcy for many businesses in the US (and globally). The effects caused by this global pandemic will be lasting—the way in which businesses get work done has been forever changed. 

As we reach the conclusion of the year, business leaders can now apply what they have learned over the past 12 months to get a better hold on their organizations. However, it is noticeable that those organizations that were more data-driven have done significantly better than those that were not. While the operations for many have started to solidify, businesses should still exercise a healthy dose of caution—as the road to a fully recovery still appears lengthy and daunting.  

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, leaders that have the most optimistic predictive views of the next six months tend to share a common thread—they lead extensively data-driven organizations. Those that deployed methodologies that foster a data-driven culture have not only weathered 2020 better than others but are poised to have explosive growth since they continue to better understand their culture, teams, and employees—without a biased lens.  

Future Optimism and Capitalizing on Data 

Data-driven organizations have shown more confidence and resilience throughout the pandemic. This is due to the ability to quickly identify inefficiencies, opportunities for growth, and new ways in which to empower their teams to get the job at hand done. Likewise, those companies that had the systems in place to not only gather data, but tools that foster collaboration, communication, and teamwork were able to keep their performance, productivity, and culture intact. Leaders that utilized data tended to be able to gain visibility more quickly on the evolution of the global landscape and respond accordingly to provide safety, security, and comfort to employees and customers.  

In the coming year, the gaps that already exist when comparing a data-driven company to one who does not utilize data in a meaningful way will continue to widen. The use of data (and the systems that gather, aggregate, and analyze said data) are no longer a “nice to have,” but a must have. The more actionable data that can be put into the hands of decision-makers, the better—which may require some specific tooling, particularly for organizations that cannot afford a formal business intelligence strategy consisting of data analysts, scientists, visualization tools, and reporting tools.  

Artificial Intelligence (A.I) and Machine Learning (ML) Make Data Skilling Affordable 

Businesses that want to ensure continued success and growth must continue to invest in their most important asset, their people. Employees, particularly in the technology space, are eager to hone their analytical and data skills, expertise, and prowess. Investing in these analytical capabilities, while traditionally costly, will be a key driver for talent retention as we head into the new year. 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities have finally reached a point in which data augmentation can significantly reduce training costs and empower more organizations than ever before to become truly data driven. By using A.I. and ML businesses can automate the analysis of data in near real time to reduce the risk of misinterpretation, drastically improve data comfortability, and most important significantly increase the number of actions based on analytical data rather than experience and “gut” alone.  

While investing in the skills required to leverage data to its fullest will be critical, it is also essential for leaders to develop more comprehensive data strategies as they continue to look to incorporate data across their organizations. The three most pressing areas for this to be accomplished have been and remain: 

• Data Quality 
• Data Transparency 
• Speed & Agility 

Ensuring Growth in 2021 and Beyond: Becoming a Data-Driven Company

Analytical and data-driven insights will continue to fuel the growth, recovery, and scalability of organizations this coming year and forever beyond. For business leaders that have concerns about where their company falls on the “data-driven maturity curve” rest assured that the only wrong decision currently, is to continue to wait on developing a data-driven culture. 

Becoming data-driven no longer requires hefty and costly infrastructure changes. Your teams are already generating a ton of valuable data, you just lack the tools that empower your workforce to make critical decisions when and where they need to.  

Look at Peoplelogic for instance. With Peoplelogic, the platform can automatically aggregate, structure, and analyze actionable data from all the cloud tools your teams use on a day-to-day basis. Even better, using A.I. and ML, the tool automatically surfaces insights and recommendations around your team’s capacity/utilization, work-life balance, and workflows. The tool provides an avenue for organization to become data-driven quickly, while also ensuring the continued development of manger’s analytical skillset, providing clear and actionable recommendations that reinforce best-practices managerially, analytically, and operationally. 

If you want a jumpstart on becoming data-driven—ensuring that your colleagues can make the right decision at the right time using real-time data, get started with your free 30-day trial of Peoplelogic. You can get signed up and setup in under an hour—helping you rest easy over the holidays knowing that your team is prepared to become truly data-driven in 2021.