How to overcome the challenges in becoming a Data Driven Company

How to overcome the challenges in becoming a Data Driven Company

Technical difficulties are not usually the main problem in digital transformation to become a Data Driven organization. The majority of technical problems that we encountered a few years ago; Big Data, Machine Learning, advanced data attribution, systems customization or automation, are solved at a technical level. However, in some cases digital transformation projects fail. The real barrier appears in most cases to be in the resistance to change the organization itself. When implementing the different initiatives and projects it is important to take into account the main risks and above all the difficulties in many occasions in purely embedding and rolling out the changes  into our day to day work activities. I do not intend to list them all, but from my point of view and based on the experience of different projects in which I have participated, I would like to point out the following: – The great complexity and diversity of the technological environment. Just by observing one of the latest marketing technology landscape, its great number and difficulty is clear. – Internal barriers and in many cases the cultural clash itself within the organization between who does what and who will do what in the data driven organization. – Although  improvements may be observed, in many cases we are still a fragmented organization operating in silos and not fully reaping the benefits of a true data driven company. – New GDPR data protection regulation, which raises the level of protection and security in terms of data and yet new challenges. – And finally, technical limitations, such as increasing the number and type of devices. As professionals who are dedicated to this, we must not fall into discouragement to find the many disadvantages and especially not see these difficulties as problems but only as circumstances to go through to become a Data Driven company.

To achieve success and a digital transformation project that does not become a journey through the desert, I recommend considering the following aspects: 1. Begin with a strategy A correct initial analysis that includes knowing the initial starting situation of the organization with respect to all involved Stakeholders, will be essential to be able to correctly plan each of the strategies and phases of the transformation project, thus achieving the commitment of the different stakeholders. 2. Truly understand your business I would like to focus this aspect on how the different interactions an organization has with its consumers affect the results in the short, medium or long term. We talk about our initial communications even before our future customer knows who we are,  even the actions of loyalty program, how do we interact in cross-selling and up-selling, without forgetting the interactions during incident management or possible other problems during our relationship with the consumer. 3. Accept that a perfect attribution is impossible   Just when we begin to understand a little better how the data works and how are the different interactions with the customer through the customer journey, we tend to fall into the error of looking for the accuracy and perfection of the system. Although the quality of the data and its veracity are paramount, establishing a perfect attribution as an objective, even if it is only applied to marketing, is a wrong approach. It is important to focus and focus on arranging an actionable attribution. 4. Need to change and learn to manage change The real barrier is found in the resistance to change and even in the blockade that in many cases we observe in the very structure of organizations that are immersed in processes of digital transformation. Without correct change management we considerably increase the risk of failure and above all, we will make the process much harder for the different parties. 5. Always put the initiative at the center of the consumer strategy Sometimes we focus more on the products or channels than on the consumers themselves and unfortunately the intensification in the use of different devices (mobile, tablet, desktop) and the new ones to come (voice, IOT …) are complicating the vision every day to be consumer centric and while in most cases only biased parts of reality. Remember the phrase We must be Data Driven to be Consumer Centric. Being data-driven managed  means to become a truly an organization focused on its customers and not the ultimate goal of being a Data Driven managed Company. 6. Embrace and Align even more around Data and Technology As our CEO José Antonio Martínez Aguilar points out, As our CEO José Antonio Martínez Aguilar points out, only with technology are you able to beat the technology  and from the Making Science Group we are very optimistic about doing exactly that for our customers. The new algorithms of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence that we are beginning to obtain carry some of the traditional difficulties of Online Marketing at an unimaginable scale and many of the processes that previously required the participation and collaboration of different highly specialized technical teams, as well as months for its correct functioning can be more efficiently automated, greatly facilitating the adoption of this new technology by companies while just a few years ago this advanced technology was available only to large governments.