The ability to collect data, analyze that data, and turn it into actionable information or knowledge is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. The amount of knowledge we have today would be unimaginable if it weren’t for our ability to record, store, and access information with the click of a button or the tap of your finger. Unfortunately, there’s a drawback to having access to so much information: overload.
How Datafication Works
Datafication is a process in which data is collected, analyzed, used for prediction, and then acted upon. Data can be collected from any number of sources such as sensors or social media. It can also be aggregated from people’s reactions to advertisements or products. This information can then be aggregated to find patterns and trends that would otherwise go unnoticed by the naked eye.
Where Is Business Headed?
Business is changing. The way we do business has changed dramatically in the past decade, and it’s only going to change more in the future. Â When you start a business today, there’s no such thing as a typical day. You’ll be handling everything from marketing to payroll, from customer relations to sales, from legal issues to manufacturing. Â All these tasks–and more–will likely fall under your umbrella because that’s what running a company looks like today: managing all the pieces at once. It may seem chaotic, but there are two big reasons for this new trend: data and connectivity. As businesses have increasingly embraced data-driven decision making over the last 10 years, they’re also embracing connectivity with their customers and partners.
But those aren’t always popular trends among business owners; they can feel overwhelmed by them instead. In fact, many small businesses are hesitant to embrace new technologies or give up control of their operations to technology providers (even though they’re so often tempted by cost savings).
Yet here’s the reality: Every modern-day company needs both technology and people power to succeed.
Opportunities in Today’s Dataified World
Data is a valuable resource for an organization, but it can also be overwhelming. There are many challenges that organizations face when they try to integrate data into their decision-making processes. For example, it’s hard to make sense of all the data points and figure out which ones are important. It’s also difficult to process all the data in time, especially when there are so many different sources coming from various systems. But with tools like Hadoop and Splunk, businesses now have a better understanding of how to manage this vast amount of information.
Challenges with Being a Datafied Organization
Datafied companies are accountable for their data from inception to disposal. This means that they must constantly monitor what data they collect, why they collect it, how long it is stored, and how it is used. For example, a restaurant chain may want to know the average food cost per person based off the region where their restaurants are located so that they can provide an accurate menu pricing for patrons. To find this information, the company must ask customers what dishes they ordered (which can be tracked by using a credit card), take a picture of the receipt at time of purchase, aggregate all orders in that region together to make an average food cost per person based off dishes ordered and then make adjustments accordingly.