This Is How You Become a Data-Driven Leader

At many companies, there’s a prevailing sense of euphoria when it comes to digitalization. In the specialist departments, many employees want to combine their old Excel lists with the new options of evaluating data or want to replace them with modern BI systems. Those responsible for digitalization observe how often isolated business intelligence solutions emerge. This is where an immense opportunity lies in store for them. If they combine solutions and consolidate data from different sources, they can make a huge step towards an integrated solution that can be used across the whole company. To put it in other words - what needs to be established is a data warehouse that is used across the entire company. They thus professionalize the digitalization activities of their colleagues.

Standardized and uniform KPIs

So far, the various BI systems in the specialist departments and the analyses they provide cannot be pieced together to provide an integrated, overall view of the company. The results of the evaluations are fine and correct for the individual departments and the specific applications. However, the challenge is standardizing these systems and their different analysis models and key figures. After all, the familiar problem of diverse lists and data evaluations still persists. The key figures and data aren’t compatible or even contradict each other in the worst case. The reasons for that are easy to explain. Categories and structures are individually defined for each system, and they do not allow for data exchange and data comparison. Data regarding customers, products, materials, and employees is redundantly stored and appears multiple times in the systems and in different categories.

The view of the company that is envisaged

There’s no doubt about it: If the actual stock levels do not match the data from the accounting department, there’s either too many goods in stock, or the IT systems are not appropriately fine-tuned. One error exacerbates the other, leading to costs that are not even visible in the systems. Thus, the digital view of the company, as shown in the systems, is incorrect. For an accurate view of the actual situation, employees go through the data and lists by hand, synchronizing, correcting, copying and deleting data. A standardized BI system used across the whole company can help you get rid of these problems at a click of the mouse. Those who tackle this challenge quickly and pragmatically will play a key role at the company in the future.

Central data warehouse

First and foremost, the company requires a uniform database for all divisions and departments. To get a realistic view based on the data, those responsible need to establish a central point of information. This is where all data is transferred, sorted, structured, and checked for duplication and redundancy. All of the departments’ evaluations and analyses are done using this fully validated data. This central data warehouse is the result and the aim of the current digitalization efforts. For many companies, it’s time to take the initiative and steer the various digitalization activities in this direction.