Why is Data so Important?

Data!

It’s been the key buzz-word in recent years.

With the recent change in GDPR regulations all companies were scrambling to sort, store and use their data effectively and since then the craze around data has snow-balled. An increase in roles specifically for data and digital transformation have seen companies focusing on their data strategies and in doing so attempting to upskill their staff so that their workforce is ready for the data changes.

With a recent article mentioning the line ‘Tesco knows more about its customer’s than the NHS does its patients’ it was shocking to realise that maybe some organisations are struggling to catch up with the likes of the big brands. Article link below:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/12/tesco-knows-customers-nhs-does-patients/

With cyber attacks and data breaches becoming more of a threat, it is becoming more criticial that companies are protected and secure. Some organisations are still on old legacy systems or Microsoft systems that have gone out-of-life which leaves them without the latest updates and patching and therefore open to breaches.

So why is data important? Why is data that should be protected?

Well if not for the obvious reasons that it is sensitive data that in the wrong hands cause could great inconvience and damage to other people and that it is private and under the new, stronger regulations it would be illegal to not protect, store and manage the data correctly. But data can be really useful!

One of our customer’s used it as a resourcing system. They had real issues over staffing and having enough people during the busier periods and having lots of staff when they didn’t need them. We helped this particular customer analyse their data and realise that from previous sales, staffing rotas and other data that if they collated all this, they could have a successful solution to their staffing problem.

We worked with this customer and used predictive analytics to forecast when sales would be high (it would be a busier period) and when sales were low (it wasn’t a busy period) in order to work-out, going forward where they needed their staff. This customer then used our recommednations to implement this new automated staffing rota – and it worked with great success!

Using data they already had we worked with them and saved them staffing costs and increased sales (during the busier periods they have more staff on hand to bring in more sales). It was a great success both for the customer and risual.

You can read more about this customer and their journey with risual at the link below:

https://www.risual.com/portfolio-items/marstons-take-on-a-journey-to-improve-accuracy-and-forecasting-with-microsoft-azure-machine-learning/

So in conclusion, data is important!

When used properly it can be used as a forecasting tool for staff, sales and more, it can be used to know your customer’s better and really build up that relationship with them and in other ways too.

If you have any ideas about how data could benefit you but are unsure get in contact and we’d be thrilled to have a conversation with you around your data strategy and how we can work with you to benefit you.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

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