How Business Data Is Important To Organizational Performance

Data is at the center of every modern business.

In fact, it is nearly impossible to make smart moves and realize growth if you’re not keeping track of the activities affecting operations on a daily basis.

As companies continue to increase the amount of technology used during basic tasks, the amount of information stored and saved for future analysis only increases.

Typically, the concept of business data is far-reaching and includes everything from simple analytics details to in-depth reviews of organizational performance.

That said, it is important to realize that keeping and storing this type of information is a key aspect of data-driven decision-making.

After all, how do you know if what you’re doing in your company is creating the desired outcome if you aren’t relating activities to the outcomes?

Here’s what we’ll cover in this post

• What Is Business Data?
• The Importance Of Using Business Data
• What Are The Types Of Business Data?
• How Business Data Is Used By Different Teams In A Company
• Wrap Up: Why Business Data Is So Important To Companies

What is business data?

In simple terms, business data is any bit of information that relates to the running of a company.

This can be something as simple as a list of employees or as intricate as an accounting ledger.

It can also include aggregates such as:

• Operational costs.
• Strategic overviews.
• Customer contact information.

In fact, any sort of contextual data (information) your employees save for use in marketing, operations, human resources, or sales planning could technically be deemed as business data.

Often, this level of information can include sensitive data (i.e private customer details or proprietary information) So it’s important to have a strong security measures in place and understand the regulations that apply to your organization.

Failure to take appropriate precautions could lead to a breach, which could lead to hefty fines or even a lawsuit.

It’s a best practice to treat even insignificant information as securely as possible at all times.

The Importance Of Using Business Data

Business data is an integral part of growing your enterprise.

After all, this is the information your organization uses to make executive decisions, streamline marketing campaigns, and develop winning ideas that increase overall growth.

Consider these questions:

➜ How would you know if a specific digital marketing campaign performed if you weren’t keeping track of and storing this type of data?

➜ How would you get in touch with a list of top customers who regularly buy from your company?

By consistently collecting and monitoring this type of information, your development teams can make smarter decisions overall regarding all aspects of your business.

In turn, that leads to more growth and more effective strategies.

Of course, not all business data is entirely useful.

But that’s the beauty of data-driven growth and why your in-house experts are there to help you discover the most important nuggets of information.

Sometimes, what might seem small and insignificant one day can be an absolute game changer for your organization the next.

What Are The Types Of Business Data?

Depending on your perspective, this questions can feel overwhelming. The key takeaway is despite the type of data, it can be useful now or in the future. Here’s a few data types:

• text
• numbers
• calculations
• pictures
• files
• dates
• relationships

Notice we didn’t give the data a label like “Customer Acquisition Cost” or “Monthly Recurring Revenue”. That’s because those labels fall into the “calculation” type.

It is more approachable to think about data in these categories than any other way because it helps organize the approach to how you manage the data.

For example, a comment added to the CRM (ex. comment) doesn’t mean much on it’s own. However, when you under how the comment relates (relationship type) to other text (customer name), date (when comment was made), numbers (deal amount), calculations (total contract value). Suddenly, the comment because much more powerful.

The most important data you can store are the relationships between different data types.

How Business Data Is Used By Different Teams In A Company

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is assuming each department uses data the exact same way has every other department.

Departments don’t use data in the same way. There are always different circumstances, contexts, and perceptions that cause differences.

It is important to support these differences because they help balance perspectives across the company.

It is equally important to ensure departments are not aggregating and calculating data separately. When this happens, confusing and mistrust in data.

Centralizing and reducing the number of reports, graphs, and calculations departments use help everyone build off a unified version of information.

Wrap Up: Why Business Data Is So Important To Companies

In short, business data is an incredibly crucial aspect of your overall operations.

Without a clear picture of what your company or individual departments are doing, it would be very difficult to make decisions for long-term planning.

While some information is just textual data for later use, others provide intricate details that come out of your business can give analysts insight into where you’re headed as a future organization.