Unlocking innovation with data

Iver Van de Zand at SAP BTP argues that businesses are lacking the tools to unlock innovation from crude data

 

In our ever-connected digital worlds, we’re all exposed to hundreds of datapoints every minute. The same is true for businesses and their employees.

 

From sales information and staff details, to supply chain updates and backroom stock, this outpouring of data is rich in insights and incredibly valuable to businesses. In 2023, data is the crucial difference between running an ‘analogue’ organisation, and a truly connected business that uses the right technology to make decisions based on intelligent insights, rather than instinct or historic business assumptions. 

 

In 2006, British mathematician Clive Humby coined the phrase “Data is the new oil” – 17 years later, the sentiment of his words still rings true. Just like crude oil, without the ability to make the most or fully take advantage of ‘raw’ data, its ultimate usefulness and efficacy remains limited. 

 

This analogy also confers an additional sense of significance in 2023. As we look beyond our finite fossil fuel resources to alternative forms of creating energy, we also need to treat data as baseline that we look to build something better on. 

 

Buried in crude data

It’s true that many organisations already understand the significance that data can have to their operations. Yet, a concerningly high number don’t have the technology or knowledge to unpick what data is relevant to them – or even how they can use it. 

 

In reality, this abundance of data can be a double-edged sword to businesses. Without the ability to see this data ‘in context’, businesses struggle to understand what they can do with it. Unsure of the questions to ask the data, it remains raw and unusable – and continues to pile up. In this state, it refuses to hand helpful and impactful insights to businesses. 

 

Consider the volume of emails a company gets every day. Now, have a think about how much time employees have to spend manually wading through spam, irrelevant messages and mass-mailouts. In 2019, The Guardian reported that the average worker receives 121 emails every day – and it will have only increased since then. Now apply this analogy towards the ever-increasing amount of data becoming available to business, and you’ll get an idea how important “keeping data in context” really is.

 

This is just one of many examples of attention-sapping repetitive tasks that are burdening businesses and their teams, and detracting from the ability to run more intelligently.

 

Replacing legacy systems

One of the first steps an organisation can take is reassessing whether its digital backbone contains core components of business resiliency. If an organisation still has a significant amount of legacy IT systems in place, realising the benefits of impactful technologies like intelligent automation will be harder to achieve. 

 

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, holding on to outdated systems – that were often designed to handle specific business needs – can prevent businesses from unlocking their ability to innovate effectively. These systems commonly store data in disparate systems and in a non-standardised format, making it challenging for businesses to extract and transform the data into useful insights.

 

By replacing legacy systems with modern solutions businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their operations, identify trends and patterns, and make more informed decisions in a timely manner. But what are these modern solutions?

 

Transforming raw data into intelligent insights

Volume and usability are clearly both significant challenges for businesses when it comes to managing and understanding data.

 

The good news is that there’s a growing suite of tools that can help organisations unlock intelligent insights from their raw data. Significantly, machine learning and artificial intelligence are playing an important role in enabling these. For example, AI-powered bots can help businesses cut through high volumes of email clutter so that employees can focus on the emails that need responding to. This enables businesses to automate routine tasks, freeing up hours of staff time so that they can focus on more strategic and high value initiatives. 

 

There’s no denying that Clive Humby’s prophetic statement all those years ago continues to ring true in 2023. But if businesses are ever going to truly realise the aspirations of his comment and unlock innovation, then they need the right tools and technology to do turn raw data into refined insights. Only then will we deliver on the promise of data.

 

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Iver Van de Zand, VP of SAP BTP – EMEA North

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com