If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you have visions of a thriving business with thousands of customers, products, and services. You likely have multiple systems powering your digital footprint like a web host, digital analytics, customer management, and social media.
You probably use data daily to understand how your list is growing and whether your sales are increasing. This may be manageable for now, but soon, your data will grow beyond your current capability to manage. To get proficient in managing your data, consider taking a course on data science.
It’s time to proactively create a data management strategy to equip your company for streamlined insights and growth.
Don’t let words like data, cloud, infrastructure, and analytics scare you. As the boss of your organization, you have the power to learn and harness the necessary tools to help you grow.
Here are the top 5 reasons entrepreneurs need a data warehouse strategy today.
A data warehouse doesn’t need to be complicated
A data warehouse at the core is exactly what the word sounds like, a warehouse where your information is stored. The reason you want all of your data in a singular warehouse is for convenience and to save (major) time.
In the same way you would want a physical warehouse for your goods to be centrally located and neatly organized, you want your data to be set up the same way.
Conversely, if your data exists in multiple storage spaces, all over the digital “map”, it’s hard to find and even harder to leverage. It’s hard to work in a messy office, so don’t let your data get messy.
Create a personalized, unforgettable customer experience
There’s a reason why “data” has become a hot business buzzword. Data itself isn’t what’s so exciting though. It is the insights that come from data. Companies across the globe are spending millions to harness data so they can access powerful insights that lead to money generating decisions and ideas.
You might think that you’re too small to get in on the big data revolution, but that’s not true. Small businesses stand to benefit tremendously by knowing insights about their customer behavior and preferences.
Having organized access to your business data allows you to avoid costly mistakes like assuming your customers want one product over another. It allows you to offer personalized messages to specific members of your database, to create an unforgettable customer experience.
You will actually save valuable time (no more spreadsheets)
Before smart data warehouses, the idea of corralling your data into one streamlined hub would have required a talented (and expensive) data engineer. Even today, entrepreneurs are forced to grab insights from multiple systems manually, add them to a spreadsheet, and then formulate insights.
Now, with cloud data warehousing technology, data management can be done with few technical resources. Smart data warehouses allow you to connect your various platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, Facebook and Instagram without any coding knowledge.Making these connections allows you to see your customers in 3D. Imagine what it would be like to know the social media habits of your highest performing customers.
It is possible to organize data warehouses and simplify data management for entrepreneurs. Using resources such as the Apache Kafka architecture, it becomes possible to streamline the data pipeline within these warehouses and structure different categories of information based on departments, timelines, etc. With higher data organization, it will be convenient for entrepreneurs to track information as and when necessary and use it for various business operations.
Data management allows you to be closer to your customer
Entrepreneurs feel a strong passion and conviction to help their customers. As you grow, your ability to be in tune with every new subscriber or customer becomes more difficult. A data warehouse can help keep you close to your customers.
With a well-managed data system, you can find ways to continually keep track of who you’re working with. User data helps you gain insight about your customer preferences, behavior and demographics. This means you can continue to speak to them in an authentic way, and offer them solutions that will truly make their lives better.
Your business will only grow in complexity
A growing customer base, online presence, and product line equals success. As those areas grow, so does the amount of data being tracked. The more successful your business, the more robust and sophisticated your data management and analysis should be.
In the beginning of your business, you can get away with making decisions using your gut. However, as you gain more customers and make more money, data helps to bolster your intuitive and strategic decision making.
Technology has made data management easier than ever before
Large companies have millions to invest in their big data departments. Data science is the most highly funded department in most large corporations because of the return on investment. Often small companies hold back in the area of data management because they believe the complexity and cost will be too high.
Luckily, advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning have enabled near-automation of data management. This means small companies and entrepreneurs don’t have to be left out of the data arena. With tools like Panoply, entrepreneurs can connect their sources of data within minutes.
Data management means future success
Analyzing multiple data sources periodically is the key to understanding the health and velocity of your business. Today, melding multiple systems together does not have to be complicated. Startups like Panoply thrive on helping passionate business owners further their mission. That’s why they have made a data warehouse tool that makes data management approachable and within reach.
Elena Frumkin is a product manager at Panoply and she helps make being data-driven easy for Panoply customers big and small. Learn more about data warehousing trends by reading Panoply’s 2018 Data Warehousing Trends Report.