Data Strategy is Key

In my blog Data Informed Leaders Perform Better I wrote that it’s challenging to set up a trusted, timely and comprehensive data collection, transformation and reporting solution, especially if there is no dedicated in-house resource. In this blog, I’ll discuss a methodology to address this.

First off, good preparation and planning is essential so you'll need a data strategy. This should identify the reports and dashboards required, these will align with the overall objectives of the organisation but will also reflect the sector it occupies. Core systems provide some key information but there will be big gaps where additional data required specifically by the organisation will have to be extracted.

The strategy should agree the right tool for the job, in most cases we recommend a Power BI solution, and the organisation will need to prioritise the order in which the reports and dashboards are to be built.

The strategy should define key principles around data governance. Data sources which are trusted and can provide consistent, timely and accurate information should be identified and the Extract, Transform and Load process should be as automated as possible via direct connections to databases and APIs. Loading from spreadsheets/CSV files should be avoided as much as possible.

Establishing a top down data culture is essential and the plan for this should be set out. Senior leaders should commit to the use of reports and dashboards within the regular review processes - relating to teams, departments and the organisation itself, to inform assessment of performance and enable good decisions. Top down will also become bottom up as the teams at the coal face will want and need visibility of their data. A strong communication plan will be essential to support embedding a data culture.

Armed with your strategy, you'll then need to allocate resource to the task. This resource might be an enthusiast in the organisation who works on data and dashboards alongside their full-time job - not ideal, or it could be a full-time/part-time dedicated role or the task can be outsourced to a data specialist such as Hawk Data who will work with you to set out the strategy and build the resulting data structures.