If you’re a data giant or high-growth organization, you’re in a unique position to facilitate data acknowledgment and appreciation. Don’t waste this golden window of opportunity. Take this moment to make a conscious decision to incorporate best practices, promote good habits, and build the foundation for a data-driven culture.
There’s no absolute data-driven strategy that would work for all companies. However, there are pitfalls all companies need to be aware of. Now is the important moment to get your existing data-driven strategy right. Otherwise, the damage is mandatory.
Companies of All Types Have Undergone Data-related Struggles
Everybody knows that data matters immensely. It’s vital for your teams and the long-term success of your company. You leverage data streams to deliver the value promised to customers without delay, monitor your place in the business market, prioritize new initiatives, and more.
So why do you think managing data is a battle for many — and a battle you’re losing?
Even in the majority of growth-driven companies, data-driven initiatives can falter or fail to deliver on their promises. A poor data integration strategy proves to be one of the main reasons.
An old, brittle data integration approach compromises companies’ speed, efficiency, and productivity. Such an approach burdens IT to create custom codes and build extensive data mappings, which takes time and effort.
These problems can be frustrating, but if you recognize the problem and course-correct early on, you can save yourself a lot of stress in the future. The first step is to identify the pitfalls in detail.
Pitfall 1: Increasing the IT delivery gap
If you’re using a legacy data integration solution, then it’s obvious that your IT teams would be spending weeks or months on implementing data connections with customers. Because a lot of time is spent on creating data connections, IT doesn’t get enough time to focus on more high-value, innovation-driven business priorities. Also, because they are limited in number, they struggle to finish tasks on time.
Pitfall 2: Taking months to onboard customers
Companies that use traditional data integration methods require IT to create custom codes to build onboarding connections. That takes weeks, or sometimes even months. During that time, customers are forced to wait to connect with business workers, and ultimately they become frustrated and unhappy. That is certainly not a good sign because it’s likely that they would switch or speed negative word-of-mouth recommendations.
Pitfall 3: Letting your silos control you
It’s not easy to avoid data silos. This is true for even the smallest, three-person, stealth-mode startup that probably has two engineers running applications on different servers. Now, as long as companies can find everything and everyone knows where to find out what they need, data silos are not a problem. However, when data silos start building confusion and affecting decision-making and value generation, it’s time to take action.
How Self-service Can Benefit Businesses
All these problems and more can be resolved using a reimagined data integration approach. One such method is self-service data integration.
Self-service data integration solutions enable non-technical business users to implement data connections much more quickly. Users can leverage pre-built connectors, shared templates, and AI-data mapping to integrate customer data faster. More so, these solutions empower non-techie business users to implement onboarding connections 80 percent faster by pointing and clicking through easy-to-navigate screens. At the same time, IT is freed to drive more strategic business projects. Because everyone in the organization gets the power to build and manage connections, the problem of data silos gets minimized. Companies can quickly address the needs and requirements of customers and deliver on them.
In short, self-service data integration solutions enable your business to reduce the IT delivery gap, speed up customer onboarding, and minimize data silos, delivering value and delightful customer experiences.