How to Make Data-Driven Business Decisions in 5 Simple Steps

Every business needs to find a way of gathering data and transforming it into information that can analyze your performance and provide insights that you can action.

All the best data analytics companies fully understand how vital it is to collect data that is based on your key performance indicators (KPIs) so that you have the tools to use that information to improve and fix any problems identified.

Here is a look at the process involved in making key data-driven decisions.

Define your vision and goals

If you are going to harness the true power of data analytics your first step is to define exactly what direction you want to take the business in and what sort of targets and goals you want to achieve along the way.

KPIs are only useful if you have some decent level of meaning and context to the figures and graphs that you are analyzing.

Collecting the right data

Once you have defined your goals and have a vision, you then need to set about gathering the right level and type of data that will enable you to generate insightful reports.

There are a number of key metrics that need to be included in your analysis.

These include a look at your gross profit margin, what level of ROI you are achieving, and what sort of productivity levels you are achieving. 

Time to get organized

The next step is to organize your data in a way that provides you with a high level of visualization.

A useful reporting tool that you could use to gather all of your data in one place could be the dashboard feature that will feature in your software package.

This so-called executive dashboard is usually fully customizable. That means you have the ability to organize your data in a way that suits your requirements and gives you the valuable insights you want at the touch of a button.

Time to start looking at your data

Once you have everything in place and you have organized your data collection and sources accordingly, it’s time to start performing data analysis.

Bear in mind that data analysis tends to be a collaborative process. It would be a good idea to share your analytics tools with key members of your team and parts of the organization who could be impacted by the results.

This allows you to get a different perspective on the data results. This often makes it more powerful when someone sees something differently and offers valuable insight that you may have overlooked.

Understanding the results

Data analytics is like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. You only get to see the full picture once everything is in the right place. 

Understanding and interpreting the data that you have collected is a key part of the whole process. Your goal is to learn from the information you are seeing and work out how you can use the data to help meet your business goals.

If you follow these essential steps you will be in a position to harness the true power that data analysis software can deliver.