The role of data in digital transformation cannot be overstated, says Mritunjay Kumar, founder of InsightzClub, a marketing start-up that helps businesses uncover valuable insights from data for better decision-making, marketing, and results.
In an interview with Business Today about data management, he explains that digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business which inevitably results in fundamental changes to how businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers.
InsightzClub’s Chief Growth Officer, Anirban Ganguly, says, “Today, customers engage with brands across increasingly fragmented channels and platforms both on and offline, creating larger volumes of consumer data than ever before. Digital transformation with data is the digital enablement of businesses, delivering customer or stakeholder value through greater understanding, alignment, and actioning of digital and offline data.”
He stresses that the right data points can inform, initiate, and drive action at scale to remove friction from the buyer’s journey, improve customer satisfaction, drive brand preference, average order value and increased return of investment, which is what digital transformation with data delivers.
Given the many traditional companies now making a beeline to upskill their talent , how can it be done in companies? Kumar says that scaling a data upskilling program is key to the success of digital transformation initiatives.
“Data upskilling is the backbone of digital transformation. Data upskilling is an ongoing journey of data fluency across the business ecosystem,” he says.
While there are many levels to a successful upskilling program, the key is to have a structured data fluency program that can assess the data fluency quotient of the organisation and chart out a program that takes into account the learning curves, hopes and fears matrix, feedback of employees and timeline of implementation and objectives and key results (OKRs). Upskilling is an ongoing track, especially in the digital transformation phase and post-transformation journey.
Learning and Development (L&D) teams, line managers and Chief Experience Officers (CXOs) have critical roles in storytelling the upskilling initiatives with regular interactions with the wider organisation to assess impact, remembering to “inform to transform”.
Sharing some of the best practices of their clients, Kumar says that scaling up is a rewarding yet challenging endeavour.
“It is very important to be aware of the efforts and rewards that come with incorporating digital integrations into a business. Firstly, the business team needs to appoint an internal champion within the organisation to lead and monitor the programme.
“Get external expert help – usually internal resources are too comfortable with the current ways of working so it is advisable to adopt some of third-party best practices. New thoughts and approaches are needed from external sources in order to make digital integration worthwhile and effective.
Having worked with several small to big brands in the market, he says InsightzClub has seen huge changes in the outlook of organisations such as AirAsia, BAT, Uncharm, Bake with Yen, just to name a few.
While being data-driven might seem like an expensive exercise, Kumar says the mindset of leaders in the company is important when making decisions towards digitalisation.
“Having a data-driven decision-making mindset is crucial and every step taken by a business owner must be made based on data and should be part of an organisation’s culture.
He advises business owners to start small, have clearly defined OKRs, be flexible and pivot fast if implementation or output is not happening according to set OKRs.
“I would also suggest getting your hands dirty, learning and experimenting small,” he adds.
While there are a wide variety of cost-effective and free solutions that are also available, he says that a good place to start is with Google Analytics or the basic tier of Amazon Web Services (AWS).
