A data-driven company is one that collects data, which is important for their activity and has personnel that are able to make sense of the data. The company must also be able to use the data to make decisions and change the way it does things.
What Does Being Data-Driven Mean?
Data-driven companies are always evolving and changing the way they work. Today the world is changing so rapidly that a company will have to be able to make quick adjustments in order to keep up with its competitors.
There are many types of businesses that have to be data-driven. The best examples are online marketplaces and virtual sports betting like 20bet.com. Like many other leading betting venues, the site utilizes data to figure out what betting lines to offer to its users and to calculate the appropriate betting odds for the thousands of events it offers.
This is a great example of a data-driven company. They have to keep the closest attention on players’ preferences, so they can always give them the best deals. A betting line is a handicapped match between two teams.
Let’s imagine that there are two football teams – A and B. Team A has better players, so it has a slightly higher probability of winning. And team B is weaker then team A.
In that case the bookmaker will guess that team A is 50 percent more likely to win the next match, so it handicaps the match’s outcome. If you bet on A, you will not win as much money as a player that bets on B, because A is more likely to win. However, if you bet on B, and B wins in spite of the odds, then you will receive 50 percent more money.
To give you honest odds, the bookmaker must collect a lot of data about both the teams in order to accurately guess which one will have better odds of winning. And that is what makes a bookmaker data-driven.
How Do Companies Become Data-Driven?
To be data-driven a company must have staff that is capable of collecting data and making sense of it. That means that the company’s employees must not just be able to dig up relevant information, but also be able to interpret it and come to a logical conclusion. And also the team must be able to quickly act on the data and use it to make a quick move.
The most used method of gathering important data is rummaging through the web. This process is called web scraping, and it may mean different things. It can be as simple as comparing prices at different stores. And it can be complicated too, with a lot of calculations involved.
Influential companies have specialized programs running on the Internet that collect relevant data at both day and night. These web scrapers are able to provide the company with up-to-date info at any time.
However it is not always easy for a company to become data-driven. This process takes a lot of planning and thinking. You cannot just become data-driven overnight. It is pretty expensive, and if you are not careful, then it will be a waste of money. Also you must have a team of employees that know what to do with this data.
The Importance of a Data-Driven Strategy
A data-driven company is always ahead of its rivals, because it is able to provide up-to-date feedback and information to its clients. This makes it possible for the company to develop and offer solutions that are more powerful and desired than the competitors’.
There is, however, a word of caution. There are also companies, that are not able to deal with the large amount of raw data. Some are not even able to deal with the data, or are not able to interpret it, or they harvest more than they can work with.
What are the benefits of being data-driven?
The company can see if its products are being used and if they are needed. You will be able to see if your clients are happy with what you are selling them
Your team will be able to quickly adjust to new inventions and changes in the market. The key is in speed, and a company that can quickly incorporate new things is destined to win.
Your company will be able to rely not just on the experience of your team, but on hard and proven facts. It is good, when your team members are experienced, but it is even better when they have concrete data to work with.
You will be able to effectively track down and find bottlenecks. Bottlenecks are places where your company performs the worst. Thus you will be able to find and remove things that hinder you. You will be able to quantify every employee’s efficiency at every point of time.
Finally, it makes it possible to see which approaches work, and which do not. This lets you objectively see which adjustments help and which do not.
Conclusion
A data-driven business is one that gets inspiration from raw data that it harvests and interprets. They work by collecting large amounts of data and making sense of them. When properly analyzed and interpreted, raw data can become a true driving force, and that is what makes data-driven companies the most powerful today.