3 Ways Enterprise Businesses Share Vital Data Faster
Monetizing data is a front-and-center topic in today’s competitive business landscape. It makes sense that enterprises want to make the most of the data they’ve worked hard to amass over the years. Any given organization’s data strategy depends heavily on the analytics tools they make available to employees—like self-service analytics tools that help employees pull their own insights from data without having to depend on specialists to help.
But it pays to ask: What are people within your organization doing with this information once they get it? Every company is made up of many moving parts: individuals, teams, departments, branches, etc. Without the infrastructure in place to help these different factions share insights and collaborate on solutions, your organization will be missing out on reaping all the benefits of data-driven decision-making.
Embed Analytics Dashboards
As CIO notes, some of the factors that have traditionally held employees back from accessing and sharing data in the workplace include “information silos, restricted permissions, and lack of centralized and updated content.”
At worst, these hurdles prevent individuals and employees from working together as closely as they should to drive optimal results. At best they discourage what would otherwise be helpful collaboration.
Here’s how it looks in action: A marketing team at a retail company is planning their next big promotion. So, they use business intelligence reporting to look at past campaign performance when planning upcoming launches. But, a decentralized approach to data means the merchandising team is working separately on planning next quarter’s inventory. The two teams end up working mostly in their own “bubbles.” The result? The marketing campaigns end up promoting products with limited stock—missing out on the opportunity to promote the “next big collection” as supported by merchandising data.
So, what’s the solution? Embedded analytics dashboards from platforms like ThoughtSpot can make data transparent and accessible. These interactive dashboards help everyone stay up to date at a glance without having to wade through multiple logins and email chains. Enterprise-level governance allows administrators to assign broad and narrow permissions, so everyone is able to gain access to the information they need.
Encourage the Use of Shared Workflows
Disjointed collaboration tends to fuel “the attitude of passing the buck” because teams feel like they exist within their own world. The truth is, everyone’s decisions affect one another in the workplace—and above all, they affect the communal bottom line. This is why integrated workflow tools are so important for encouraging communication across teams and departments.
Workflow management tools give employees the space to leave progress updates and notes for others. Anyone with permission can log on and see, in real-time, where their colleagues stand on certain projects, tasks and deliverables. Creating a central management space puts an end to “they said/they said” updates, creating a hub for the most current developments across the board.
Integrate Data Insights Directly into Chat-Based Apps
Even when data analytics and visualizations are available, companies still face the challenge of going “the last mile of analytics,” which means getting insights into users’ hands in a format they can use—also known as boosting adoption rates. Chatbots are useful here, as AI-driven analytics software can push relevant insights to employees when it detects something interesting within data.
How might this look in action? Well, your marketing and sales teams could get data notifications related to Salesforce sent directly to them in Slack, for instance. Integrations between data analytics and chat-based workflows puts insights right where people can see them—automatically, based on parameters your company sets for your analytics platform.
These three strategies will help enterprise businesses like yours share vital data more quickly, something that’s closely associated with bettering business outcomes.
