Hoe begin je met datagestuurd werken in 5 stappen

5 min reading time

It's no secret that data-driven companies perform better and reap numerous benefits – they have lower costs, are better able to respond to changing market conditions, and know what their customers' needs and wants are. To keep up with the competition, it's important to be data-driven – but what's the best way to go about it? With a good strategy, it doesn't have to be difficult to become a data-driven organization. In this article, we'll explain the five steps needed to develop your strategy.

1. Make sure everyone has access to the data

Access to data is often held by a limited group of people, who provide the organization with the information they are willing to share. We could also call them data gatekeepers. Let your employees decide for themselves what information they want to extract from the data and what they want to do with it, just like in a democracy. By making your data available to everyone, the acceptance within the organization to work with data increases.

2. Create a single source of truth

Data is often locked in silos, each department has its own systems and information needs. However, the potential lies in combining the data from these different silos. Consolidating the data from your CRM system, ERP system, ESP system, marketing campaign systems, and other systems in one place creates a single source of truth (SSoT). This SSoT gives everyone access to the same consistent information. Ultimately, this also contributes to better acceptance and use of data within your organization.

3. Clean your data and combine it into new insights

Shouldn't data cleaning have been the first step here? By working with data as it is, the flaws within your existing data structures come to light. In this way, end users of the data directly experience the pain of poor data quality. This creates an urgency for them to cooperate in raising data quality to a higher level.
In the SSoT, you can also combine all kinds of data elements into new, calculated data elements, such as customer segments. These calculated variables are recalculated with each mutation and are immediately available to everyone. If your customer is in the wrong segment because data is missing, this can be corrected quickly.

4. Reports and campaigns all from the same source

If all data comes from one source, it means that everyone is looking at the same truth and can make their decisions and actions based on that truth. This will also increase transparency within the organization. Because KPIs within the reports come from the SSoT, they provide a consistent picture of what is happening within the organization. Because everyone has direct access to this information, more efficient action can be taken. The result – the business becomes more agile, eliminating the need to wait for monthly reports, but being able to take immediate action when needed. Empowerment as a result of a data democracy.

5. Security and control

Making data available in a democratic way may sound simple, but as is often the case, the devil is in the details. It's important that you monitor who has access to what data and what happens to it. Of course, it cannot be the case that everyone has unlimited access to all data. Not everyone needs to be able to export or modify customer data, and not all data is relevant to everyone. In addition, you must ensure that you comply with the GDPR. A role and rights structure helps you organize who has access to which data. Log the activities within your data. A logbook allows you to perform an audit when needed so that you don't have any surprises.

The step-by-step plan above is the basis of the Apteco software and there is much more we can do for you. If you'd like to learn more about how our software helps our customers work in a data-driven way, contact us to speak with one of our data experts.