Who Should Be in Charge of Data Transformation?

Who should lead the data transformation revolution in your business? The right answer can enable you to reach your business goals better and faster than ever.  

Business owners all know that data should play a vital role in making important decisions, and most companies transform data to a certain degree to learn more about their clients. However, current statistics make it clear that most companies aren’t even scratching the surface when it comes to the potential of data transformation to propel a company forward. In fact, only a meager 8% of companies even bother with scaling analytics to get maximum value from their data.

One big reason data goes unused is that many busy company owners aren’t sure who should lead the charge. Some assume that it’s a job for IT technicians, as data collection and transformation have a lot to do with IT. Others think the job should be a team effort involving group discussions and planning but aren’t sure who should initiate and lead the discussions. Still, others don’t know what data transformation involves in the first place.

Philipp Baumann heads up BoomTech Inc., a leading South Florida-based IT company that has worked with a wide range of clients over a fourteen-year time period. Mr. Baumann offers a fascinating insight into the above questions, making it easy for non-tech-savvy business owners to get acquainted with data transformation and the potential it has to help a business save time and money, improve customer service, increase sales, grow the client base, and more.

Secure Data Storage

First of all, Mr. Baumann emphasizes that companies need to realize their data has not only a great deal of potential but also a large trove of personally identifiable information (PII) that must be kept secure at all times. This information includes, but is not limited to, full names, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, email addresses and home/work addresses. It also includes bits of information that could be connected with other bits of information in your possession to identify people listed in your records. Unfortunately, PII often isn’t stored as securely as it should be because each department thinks the other department is handling the task. As Mr. Baumann accurately points out, the job isn’t for one single department or person; instead, a team of people needs to be involved in coming up with a secure storage solution that enables the marketing department to use PII in compliance with industry regulations and without putting people at risk of having their data breached. A senior company executive should take charge of the process to ensure that there are no vulnerabilities that would allow cybercriminals to access personal data.

It’s worth noting that companies that need help to store data in an accessible yet secure manner may want to partner with an IT managed service provider that offers secure cloud storage solutions. Company executives, managers, and even low-level employees will still need to be involved in the secure storage process; however, working with IT technicians from an outside service can provide a business with expert insight and practical assistance in keeping data secure while making use of it to grow the company’s customer base, bring in new clients, and more.

Having Clear Plans and Goals

Mr. Baumann accurately points out that companies need to have a clear goal in mind rather than just compiling data. This is important as a small business owner needs to know what type of data he or she is looking for and how the data will be used in order to properly extract it.

Once again, no one data transformation leader can handle the whole job alone. It’s a task for the entire team and some companies may even want to bring in outside consultancy services when deciding on short and long-term business goals. Some points to consider when drawing up plans and goals for data usage include:

• What are the future plans for the business? Is it meant to expand to other cities/states or remain in a single location?
• What is the company’s target audience?
• Does the company want to expand to new target audiences or simply bring in more people from the current target audience? For instance, a company selling women’s products may need to decide if it intends to create a new product targeting male customers or create specialized products for particular groups of women.
• How much money does the company have on hand to invest in new products and services, new advertising methods, additional employees, etc.?

Naturally, you can’t have all your decisions set in stone before you gather data because the data will play a huge role in determining the direction of your business. At the same time, you need to have some decisions made in advance to know what type of data you want to collect.

In Summary

Data transformation isn’t the job of a single individual or even a company department. Rather, people from various departments and even outside consulting services will need to work together to enable a business to properly collect, analyze and use data to make wise decisions now and in the future. These individuals will need to start by finding a way to securely store and process data and then create a long-term business plan to determine which types of data are given the highest priority. Working in teamwork is the only way to use data to its fullest potential while avoiding pitfalls and problems.

To learn more on how BoomTech can help with your business IT service needs, visit https://www.boomtechit.com/

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