Online interactions – from liking a post on social networks to searches on search engines – give the applications and platforms used access to a vast array of information about users’ behavior and interests.
These people are customers, suppliers, employees, or potential investors. However, there are still companies that wonder what the advantage is of using digital data, or even how to take advantage of it in their business.
Data is a valuable resource in today’s business environment. So read on and discover the importance of basing your company’s strategic decisions on data!
What is digital data?
To understand the advantages of using digital data, you need to understand exactly what it is. From a technical point of view, they are logical representations of information manipulated by digital devices.
But in the context of business management – the focus of this content – they are associated with business intelligence. In this sense, it is information that travels in electronic media, being collected, stored and analyzed in IT solutions.
How important is digital data for companies?
Establishing the advantage of using digital data validates its importance for the company. After all, they are significant resources for management in today’s business environment. They serve as a guide, steering the company towards better opportunities or anticipating future problems.
The realistic and accurate vision of the possible scenarios they offer allows the organization to put itself at a competitive advantage in the face of unusual situations, which would be unexpected without the help of this information. In this way, there is a greater chance of success.
What is the advantage of using digital data?
When it comes to establishing what the advantage of using digital data is, the strategic benefits it provides for the company must be made clear. See what they are below!
Identifying trends
Through a data strategy, corporate intelligence can identify patterns, create scenarios and predict market behavior – demands, needs, trends, etc. – with greater agility and precision. In this way, it is possible to respond quickly to changes and get ahead of the competition.
Getting closer to customers
Attracting and retaining customers by personalizing communication is ideal in today’s market. More than that, customers are looking for a more humanized relationship with the brands they consume.
Approximation is the path that companies should follow to improve service and increase sales. Putting this into practice starts with knowing the preferences and profile of the public that consumes your product or service.
Strategic planning
Digital data doesn’t just improve the planning of sales and marketing- all areas of the company should use it in order to evolve their processes. As you can see, they give businesses the ability to anticipate possibilities with a high level of precision. This glimpse into the future makes it easier to prepare organizational actions with a view to achieving the most advantageous scenario.
More assertive decision-making
Since digital data serves as a secure basis for decision-making, it becomes more assertive and efficient as a result. In this case, choices are no longer based on guesswork, previous experiences and intuition about the market. They are now supported by probabilities, indices and realistic metrics. This increases the chances of obtaining better results.
Improving operations
Operational activities present another opportunity to use digital data to optimize performance. The interaction between external demands and internal capabilities often gives rise to problems that require prioritization in one direction to overcome them.
Accurate and anticipated information makes it possible to align these two extremes, maximizing the use of resources and generating the convergence of actions to accommodate needs in the best possible way.
Cost optimization
As a result of increased assertiveness and efficiency in decision-making, planning errors are avoided. The result is a reduction in misguided investments.
Costs can also decrease thanks to the anticipation of difficulties that can be avoided or minimized and the better use of opportunities – enabling more advantageous negotiations, for example. In addition, improvements can increase the company’s productivity, which also has a positive impact on finances.
Improved ROI
One of the characteristics that decision-making based on digital data offers is reliability. This ensures that investments are being directed towards the actions with the greatest potential for results. Thus, the Return on Investment (ROI) improves.
How to use digital data intelligently?
If the advantage of using digital data is clear, other doubts must have arisen. The first is probably how to use these resources intelligently and get the most out of them.
Trying to work with all the information available to you is a mistake. Focus is what generates accurate results. To begin with, you have to qualify them, filtering out the data that is truly relevant to the objectives set. Such as:
- establishing the profile of the target audience and their consumption habits;
- surveying the most popular products;
- mapping the customer’s journey to purchase;
- identifying opportunities and the competition.
Basically, the definition of what to analyze varies according to each situation. Issues such as brand positioning, launch strategies, development of new items, new markets, internal structuring, crisis minimization, etc. depend on different data. In this case, the results can be skewed by excess.
How is technology an ally in this process?
The effective use of digital data depends on technology. It is essential for obtaining, organizing, filtering, and analyzing data. The implementation of software for this makes the execution of these processes more agile, efficient and precise, in order to generate relevant insights.
While IT solutions – Big Data, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning – cover the capture and processing stages, it is also necessary to invest in information security from the outset to protect the business and users. With these innovations as allies, the company only stands to gain.
As well as showing the advantages of using digital data and illustrating its importance, this article has also provided information on how you can take advantage of this resource in your business. Strategy and technology are essential to get the best out of these valuable resources.
If time is money, don’t waste it. Get in touch with Stefanini and find out how our innovation ecosystem has the ideal solution for your business to use digital data to its advantage!
