Exclusive: Enterprises need to analyse and optimise their data to succeed

Recently IT Brief had the opportunity to discuss data optimisation and integration with Qrious CEO Nathalie Morris.

Qrious was born to create solutions in the data and analytics space. We set out to help companies use the massive amounts of data that most organisations have. This helps them understand to a much deeper level what's going on in their organisation and with their customers.

We're really focussed on how we can help organisations know and understand their businesses and help them succeed in this increasingly data driven world.

One of the challenges organisations often face is that there are an increasing number of data points. So foundational elements is often around how we can bring together that data to a physical place, so that we are using that to apply advanced analytics such as machine learning to uncover insights.

Then it's about showing that data in a way that can be understood by people, so that it in turn can be used for learning purposes.

Of course when you have these insights the most important part is then to use those insights to create opportunity and change. So really the key to this is when organisations are looking at their data they need to ask the 'so what?' question, to have an understanding of how the information is going to impact their business.

So data democratisation means that everyone in the business can actually get access to the data and are able to understand it so that they can make data-driven decisions in their day-to-day work tasks. Historically data has been locked away in silos and only technical people had access to it, data democratisation is really about giving this access to everyone within the business.

It's all about removing the barriers to access and helping everyone understand what the data is telling them and how they can use it in their job within the company.   

I guess when we talk about data democratisation giving people access to data to make decisions it's not exactly as easy as that. So data adoption is more about the process, cultural and business change that needs to take place within a company.

We can have all the infrastructure tools but without proper integration it won't be nearly as effective as it could be. So it's really important to insure that the data is properly integrated.

One of the biggest issues we see is that often even people who are aware of the benefits of data aren't really confident enough to use it and don't understand what it all means. So data adoption is all about helping the people within the business really understand the figures in front of them. This in turn means that the data can have a bigger impact on the business.

Data sits at the heart of a lot of marketing activity and thus if organisations understand how they can use their data it does become a powerful marketing tool.

Data can drive a better customer experience and that is one of the most important links between data and marketing.

It allows organisations to better communicate with their customers based on who they are, which ultimately leads to greater profitability.