Data Storage for Better Business Decision Making

How To Use Data Storage for Better Business Decision-Making?

Data, which can range from industry metrics, customer habits, or internal business information, is vital for helping businesses to make better decisions. Instead of having to try out many different approaches to find the most effective one, effective data analysis cuts out the uncertainty, demonstrating the data-driven decisions which are statistically best for your company.

Especially in the USA, which is the world’s biggest data market, businesses are turning to this form of technological advantage more than ever before. While on-site data storage used to be an expensive endeavor, the invention and popularization of DWaaS (Data Warehouse as a Service) have made it possible for businesses to use data more effectively than ever.

In this article, we’ll be looking at this new form of data storage, demonstrating exactly why it’s important in helping businesses to make more effective decisions.

Let’s get right into it.

What is data storage?

No matter how insightful certain forms of data may be, if it’s not correctly stored, it becomes inaccessible for analysis. Due to this, effective data storage is vital for businesses that want to access their data and run continual analysis.

Data storage in data warehouses is split into three segments, each of which forms a part of the process of collecting and processing data. These are:

● Collection — A central part of data storage is providing a location where all of the different data sets can be located.

● Diverse Data — Not all data that your business receives will be in the same format. Due to this discrepancy, a data storage unit will ensure that any data your business comes across can be processed and homogenized into the correct format for analysis at that moment.

● Industry-Wide — Going beyond just internal and customer data, an effective data storage solution will give you the opportunity to incorporate industry-wide data to give you an idea about industry trends and how your business stacks up in terms of its competitors.

Especially due to the flexibility of cloud data warehouses, it’s no surprise that they are equipped with all three of these functions, helping to bring data into one place and allowing for rapid analysis.

How to use data storage to make better business decisions

By moving to a DWaaS solution, businesses are able to keep all of their data in one place. With this, they’re then able to conduct analysis, producing findings that can benefit their company in a variety of ways. Additionally, by pulling from both industry data and company-wide data, you’ll be able to develop a more comprehensive approach to your data analysis, ensuring that you always put the right foot forward.

Some of the key ways that data help inform business decisions are in:

● Reducing uncertainty
● Optimizing the supply chain
● Innovating consumer products
● A/b testing
● Reducing data siloing

Let’s break these down further.

Reduce uncertainty

Part of what holds businesses back from making confident decisions throughout their daily operations is a lack of information. Making decisions without all of the available information is like taking a stab in the dark. Instead of being confident, businesses tentatively make soft commitments, leading to much slower progress and inefficiency.

When using a data warehouse for all data storage, businesses know exactly where they need to go to get the information that will inform their decisions. With this accessibility, they’re able to quickly run analysis around any decision that they need to make. With data at hand, they’re able to test out their ideas and work out the data-backed method, which will allow them to progress faster.

Considering that they will then be basing their decisions on data, rather than hoping it’s the right path of action, everyone in the company can be confident about the choice they made. When businesses move to data-driven decisions, everyone benefits. In fact, this is commonly one of the most cited reasons for incorporating an accessible data platform into a business, with 69% of businesses quoting improved strategic decision-making as their primary reason.

Optimize supply chain

Data can be harvested from a range of sources at every single point in your supply chain journey. This comprehensive system of collecting data ensures that you have the information needed to make effective decisions when it comes to changing or editing your supply chain pathways.

With data analysis, your business can dive into how efficient each part of your business is. By focusing on one area of your supply chain, for example, inventory management, you can then establish how well your business is running in this area.

Most supply chain professionals believe that inventory management is the most essential element of running an effective supply chain. If you’re on top of your data, then you can run real-time analysis, find methods of optimizing budgets, improve your inventory management systems, and even define if anything needs a price change.

By working out how much it costs you to store, transport, and deliver an item, you can then retroactively approach its price point, helping you to shape your inventory to a minute level. Yet, even small changes like these can lead to huge increases in profit within the business. And it all begins with effective data storage!

Improve products with customer data storage

One form of data collection is directly discussing with your customer pool. Considering that increasing customer retention rates by 5% will lead to an increase in company profits of between 25-95%, you should always be focusing on ways to make sure your customers enjoy your services.

With this in mind, it’s always a good idea to include a method for customers to fill out a customer satisfaction survey at the end of engaging with your product. This could be reviewing a product that you’ve delivered to them or just having them comment on the quality of your service.

Information feedback directly from customers is a fantastic way of getting an insight into the mind of the customer. Without having to track data or perform data-driven harvesting, you’ll be able to get an exact review of your services from their perspective. Once you have this data, but ensure it is in an analyzable form with a data warehouse, you’re then able to conduct investigations into what it reveals about your products.

From there, you’re able to then continually reform the elements that customers don’t enjoy. With this, you can constantly make your products and services better, boosting conversion and ensuring that previous customers come back time and time again for more. All you need to do is refer back to your data storage facility, take the numbers, and run continuous analytics.

A/B testing with a punch

A/B testing is the definition of using data to inform business processes. This is the act of giving a set of customers different aspects of your business, each having a slight variation, then seeing which converts more. Most commonly, this is used to test out different forms of copy on home pages, helping businesses to optimize every aspect of their sales funnel.

A famous example of A/B testing using data analysis comes directly from Google. Google tested out 50 different shades of blue on a range of their customers, noting down conversion rates for each shade. Over time, this data revealed that one shade was more effective at enticing customers to convert than other shades.

By then changing all of their sales pages to this blue shade from their A/B testing results, Google increased its revenue by a tiny change resulting in an incredible boost to revenue, with data allowing businesses to make more effective decisions and boost their metrics.

It’s incredible what a tiny piece of analysis on the figures within data storage systems can reveal.

Reduce siloing to give everyone the information that they need

Data siloing is when a breakdown in communication across departments leads to data stagnating and not being passed on to other people. While siloing is a form of data storage, it’s one that severs the community instead of building upon it. Especially in larger businesses, data siloing is a huge problem, with a lack of data meaning that employees don’t have all the information that they would need to make an effective data-driven decision.

Moving to a data warehouse provides a location where all of your employees can automatically upload their data to. Instead of not knowing what to do with their data, it acts as a catch-all, helping them share their information without taking up much time.

With this infrastructure, all of your employees can share their data and also look through the data that other people have gathered. With this, they suddenly have much larger pools of information to draw upon when they’re making a decision. Forming this transparent and data-forward company culture will help everyone see the entire picture before making a move.

With this, every decision your employees make will be well thought out and data-driven to perfection.

Final Thoughts

Cloud data storage in the form of DWaaS is a method of bringing every single piece of data that your employees come across into one accessible location. Once there, everyone will know exactly where to turn when they need to draw upon data analysis.

From marketing and sales to business intelligence and customer support, every department in your business is set to benefit from a more comprehensive data structure. Data helps people make better decisions, ensuring that your organization moves closer toward its goals as quickly as possible.

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-Charbel Nemnom-