The cost of poor data quality and inadequate data management is at an all-time high and increasing as we speak. 90% of the world’s data has been created in the last two years, with poor data quality costing large organisations an average of $9.7 million per year.

It’s unsurprising then that a recent survey of business leaders conducted by Woodhurst revealed that Data Management is the number one area across the organisation requiring transformation.

Garbage in, Garbage out. Good data in, Great insights out

By placing a greater focus on implementing a holistic, robust data management strategy, organisations can empower better, more accurate decisions, improve customer service and reduce risk.

Reap the value of great Data Management tomorrow…

Empowering data driven decisions

• The amalgamation of an increasingly complex world, the vast proliferation of data and the pressing desire to stay at the forefront of competition has made data driven decision making a business imperative. However, the value of a data driven decision is only as good as the data itself.

• By having a robust data management system in place, high quality, complete and consistent data will form the basis for decisions. This allows greater trust and confidence to be placed on the outcomes and more informed data decisions to be actioned. Companies can then create new business opportunities, generate more revenue, predict future trends, optimise current operational efforts, and produce actionable insights. 

Exceptional customer experience

• The ability to collect, analyse and refine data from the multiple touchpoints and channels a customer has with a company will generate a sophisticated and holistic profile of all customers. The business can then predict customers’ needs and customise products to a new-found degree of accuracy.

• By harnessing the vast amounts customer data and employing intelligent analytics, organisations will be able to personalise every interaction with the customer, provide automated issue resolutions and offer bespoke advice.

Enhanced security, risk assessments and compliance

• With high-profile data breaches in the headlines and regulations such as GDPR, it is more critical than ever for companies to ensure that sensitive data is handled appropriately. A rigorous approach to data security and the maintenance of data quality can be the difference between strong compliance practices and millions of dollars in fines.

• Building an effective data management capability for analytical data will enable organisations to enhance their regulatory and business reporting whilst fostering more informed, transparent risk assessments and data security measures.

By building your data foundation today…

Businesses need to put in place a clear, focused action plan to improve the management and use of data across the organisation. This action plan should focus on three key areas:

1. Invest in tools and capabilities

• Data science should be a core capability that can be utilised across the organisation. A targeted investment in people – from recruitment through to training programmes – can be a key enabler of this

• Harness the more efficient, cost-effective analytical power of the cloud and readily available intelligent automation tools to drive real-time, deep data insights

2. Focus on data quality

• Data across the organisation should be complete, accurate and plentiful

• Where it isn’t, identify which existing, valuable data sets require remediation, focusing on the creation of a “Golden Source” for key data. Initiating a system of cleansing, matching and enriching data, fosters a trusted golden source

• Consider which strategic data sets need to be acquired or developed to support wider business objectives

3. Surface and analyse

• Focus on data management processes and tools to ensure that data can be available in the right place, at the right time across the business

• Rich data sets should be constantly analysed to draw insights that influence product development, help to tailor solutions and support lending decisions, amongst others

Today, data is everywhere.

We live in a truly data economy. Banks are swamped with data from financial transactions, customer purchase histories, marketing campaigns, social media streams, third-party sources and more. This abundance of data poses valuable opportunities, but it can also create numerous challenges and have costly repercussions if it is of poor quality, inconsistent across different systems and handled incorrectly.

The insight that vast, timely, quality data gives us into our businesses, our people and our risks is invaluable. It is the crux of intelligent decision-making and is essential for moving forward in a digital world. 

High quality, consistent data will greatly enable digital capabilities to persist in every facet of the organisation. Without it, further digital transformation across the organisation will prove difficult if not near impossible. Good data management is the foundation of any successful organisation and without doubt the foundations to any digital change.

Along with Data Management, Woodhurst has identified 4 additional areas where digital capabilities specifically should be enhanced to better support customers over time.

This research, based on responses from senior leaders across the industry, can be downloaded here.