Data Advisory: Making your data strategy a success

Modern IT systems cannot do without data. Whether you are developing a mobile app, a digital product catalog, or a large e-commerce portal, sooner or later you reach a point when data management must be given special consideration. And this is when Data Advisor assistance can prove indispensable.

Data management must be approached comprehensively

It is common for many businesses to have valuable information scattered across multiple departments and disparate systems. Such data can represent different types and formats, and be of varying quality. Without proper processing, it may prove to be of little use as it is impossible to draw accurate conclusions and make good decisions based on incomplete or low-quality information. Therefore, before you can even think about putting your data into action, you must first consider how to approach the task. And you need to do it in a comprehensive way, recognizing the different aspects and challenges of data management across your enterprise.

This requires not only the right technology tools but also the knowledge of how to integrate them with your company’s IT environment to develop an efficient enterprise-wide data management system. Designing such a complex framework is not a trivial task and calls for a wealth of expertise and experience, as well as knowledge of the latest technologies, vendors, and their solutions.

Not every company has the resources to cope with this task on its own. That is why the role of a Data Advisor (or Data Advisory Consultant) is becoming more and more popular in many IT projects.

What makes a good Data Advisor

In a few words, the role of a Data Advisor requires appropriate knowledge, years of experience, and a proven track record in large-scale projects in a complex enterprise environment, including preparing dozens of POCs and participating in evaluation projects.

While skills and experience are essential, a Data Advisor should also be up to date with current data trends, including data architecture, data modeling, data usage, data governance, system design, and development practices tailored to data-centric projects.

How a Data Advisor can support you

In practice, a Data Advisor is supposed to support you in almost every area related to data management within your company.

Data Advisors act as the bridge between IT and business, including all stakeholders and sponsors (a management board, C-level executives, project managers, etc.). Their fundamental responsibility is to translate the needs and requirements of business units into the most efficient digital solutions.

Therefore, if you have concerns about how to design the entire data landscape in your company to enable data-driven change across the organization, bring on a Data Advisor. They will help you create the most appropriate data strategy as well as come up with the data policies and practices that work best for your company.

When you approach the execution of your plans, a Data Advisor will support you in creating the necessary roadmap, defining a realistic timeline, and designing the best solution architecture with maximum automation, reporting capabilities, data visualization, etc.

But that is not all. They can also assist you in selecting technology and tools, evaluating software vendors and solution providers, assembling the right team for your project, and even creating a proof-of-concept to validate your assumptions and ideas.

As in other areas of IT, data management is also experiencing rapid technological advances. Solutions, which until recently were sufficient to satisfy the needs of your organization, now cannot cope with the exponential growth of data, nor keep pace with your increasing expectations. With the help of a Data Advisor, it is easier for you to stay on top of technological developments.

A Data Advisor can support your company in keeping your systems, technology stack, and people’s skills always up-to-date and ready to fulfill both current and future data challenges.

And finally, at a time when data is one of the most crucial assets of your business and the basis for all decisions, it is imperative to have someone who can advise you on what you can do with the data, and how you can turn it into actionable insights. This often requires state-of-the-art tools leveraging advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. That makes it even more important to be able to consult with a Data Advisor on how to use these technologies successfully.

Conclusion

Data management is a vast ocean of knowledge that is constantly expanding. The myriad of issues, concepts, terms, technologies and solutions makes it increasingly difficult to find your way through. The role of a Data Advisor is to get you to the other side quickly and safely, taking the most efficient route.