‘Enterprise agility’ refers to the ability of an organization to rapidly adapt and evolve. This can factor into long-term strategic transformation or support responses to sudden developments. It is notable in that it covers the entire enterprise and is not simply a matter of digital transformation. Different members of a business are expected to look for opportunities wherever possible, even in teams that rarely experience strategic change.
In matters of transformation, more businesses are taking advantage of the perks of ‘big data’. ‘Big data’ is a term encompassing the masses of information coming from an increasing number of sources. In an era dominated by digital and IT services, there is a tremendous amount of information for businesses to take advantage of.
The issue is that big data is, well, big. There is a great deal to sort through, and gleaning any valuable insight purely via traditional analysis can be slow and is often inaccurate. That said, big data can indeed shine a light on customer, stakeholder, and market behavior. If utilized in the right way, big data can enhance the speed, direction, and success of business initiatives – including transformation programs.
So, how can big data support transformation? Let’s look at how it can help businesses optimize enterprise agility.
How does big data drive transformation?
- Risk management – A key aspect of planning transformation programs is recognizing potential risks in advance. Data analysis helps drive the development of strategies, processes, and solutions in high-risk business environments. It can highlight issues based on changing customer behavior, potential costs, and so on. By optimizing the decision-making process in this way, risks can be prepared for in advance and avoided. This greatly reduces the number of barriers to change and transformation initiatives.
- Identifying improvements – Big data can indicate faults causing lag, negative user behavior, and other problems, as well as identify performance issues in areas essential for value generation. This can also apply when planning business strategy, enhancing productivity, building new customer service features, and so on. By analyzing big data as widely as possible, businesses can continually highlight opportunities to improve.
- Cost optimization – Tools and software based around big data usage can greatly reduce the costs of analyzing, storing, and processing information. This cuts the cost of the logistics associated with enterprise transformation while also keeping decision-makers well-informed. This can also be applied to less cost-effective processes, poor supplier relations, and so on. Big data can be applied across an organization to identify and pursue improvements as efficiently as possible while also helping to optimize the benefits of change.
- Automation – Automating manual processes is a key characteristic of our digital economy. It can be applied in areas like development, operations, cybersecurity, HR, support, and elsewhere to build speed and reliability. Big data can highlight inefficient processes to be the target of automation, helping businesses take advantage and guide the creation of transformation targets.
- Knowledge gaps – Part of digital transformation is making sure your business has the capabilities to accommodate change. This can include identifying gaps where talent or improvements are required, which can guide efforts in hiring, training, purchasing software, and so on. Identifying and satisfying requirements in this way help transformation proceed smoothly while also helping to successfully embed long-term change.
Conclusion
Big data can provide a range of valuable insights to help enhance the capabilities of a business. This includes being able to recognize and pursue opportunities for transformation, which are both key for enterprise agility. This potential for holistic insight is already being utilized in organizations and industries all over the world.
That being said, it is important not to treat utilizing big data as an easy win. With the sheer volume and range of information available, attempting to utilize big data without the appropriate tools or awareness can leave businesses struggling to take full advantage.
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