The business costs associated with the lack of a comprehensive data strategy can often be elusive. Incomplete data, employee time cleaning or finding data, lost sales, delays in access to data, lack of responsiveness to customer needs, poor decisions, and the inability to implement new technologies are all examples of costs that a firm can incur. These costs are often hidden and lurking within a business, making it difficult to see the value in developing and investing in a digital strategy.
The absence of a clear data strategy has several pitfalls. Enterprise data can be stored in employee’s experience rather than a database. When employees leave, they take their knowledge with them and new hires are forced to perform duplicative work. Decision making can also be made retrospectively, either monthly or quarterly, instead of in real-time. Customer needs and behaviors are just as dynamic as the business environment, making timely responses to changes in behavior imperative. Any lag in data or analysis can be extremely costly for controlling variable costs and maximizing revenue. Further, incomplete and inaccurate data can be the foundation for decisions, leading to consistent errors or misguided assumptions. Continually relying on static systems without an overall strategy will only compound mistakes and lead to further declines.
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