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This guide outlines why data is important more than ever, as businesses look for tools to survive economic slumps and crises.
As governments, leaders and businesses begin to look at the new normal or the future normal as some are now calling it, it is important to look at what tools are going to help your business survive and which tools will help you to navigate your way through the new normal.
If you’re researching ways to adapt your business to the new normal and not only that but succeed, apart from seeing plenty about restrictions and guidelines, there is also a lot of emphasis on why data is important.
Why data is important today
During this global pandemic, this world-wide crisis, we relied on technology to get us through it, and as the world went into lockdown, our lives went almost entirely online. Amazon was never busier, online grocery shopping was in high demand, and delivery slots were hard to come by. Deliveroo became a necessity as well as a treat, something to cheer people up and give them something to look forward to and streaming services like Netflix and Spotify kept people entertained and used algorithms to tailor offerings to their personal tastes.
For business owners, it is data management and analytics that have been and will still be essential to surviving and thriving during times of disruption and beyond. Everyone everywhere was or has been impacted in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is important to remember that this unprecedented and challenging time will pass, but how you prepare now will determine how well your business thrives in the future.
Predictions about COVID-19 vary from day to day, and different experts come out with different ideas. However, it does seem unanimous that health experts don’t expect the spread of the virus to be over until later this year, it could be longer. Then you have economists who are predicting that the economy will have two bad quarters before it begins to recover. No matter how long it takes, we do know that it will end, but we just don’t know when, so in the meantime, it is worth preparing for the “Next Normal”, but how do you do that? Well, the answer is simple: you do it with data — this is why data is important. In this digital age, there is more data available than ever before and even better than that, there are the tools available to analyse the data and use it in effective ways.
So, first of all, you need to make sure you have the right tools to use this data in the best way possible. Have a look around to see what is available and what would suit you and the amount of data you have and what you’d like to achieve with it. With vast amounts of information now available it can overload a traditional database, so it’s important so you’ll need to look at things like an open-source database and if you’re not sure what to do with it, then look for a company that can help you such as PostgreSQL Support Services.
There are huge amounts of data publicly available about the status of COVID-19 from all different countries and regions. This data can be really useful for many businesses as it can be correlated with supply chain information to identify areas of risk and to forecast which regions will be onto the “next normal” soon and which ones will take longer to see a new sense of normalcy.
Covid lessons on why data is important
While there have been many lessons to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most critical lessons we have learnt is how important it is to be able to use data to prepare for unexpected, challenging times such as this one and how you can then use that data to inform your decision making. There is an urgent need for the people who can analyse data quickly to do so and then to implement the data strategy needed. As the world prepares for ‘the next normal’ once the pandemic is over or we have learned to live with the virus, advanced data science, and the technology it powers, is rapidly becoming an essential part of nearly every industry in both the public and private sectors.
Most businesses will likely boost their data strategy so that they can build simulations and forecasts and therefore, better prepare for disruptive events in the future. Now that we have experienced a global pandemic and lockdown, we know more about the potential risks, and therefore businesses can create plans for business continuity. For example, a lot of companies suffered from a breakdown in their usual supply chains during the pandemic, so now they are reassessing their structures, and many will turn to technology and automation for answers, such as 3D printing technology, robotics and automated factories that will help bring production closer to consumption.
While business leaders have traditionally identified key measures in their data collection that have helped them to improve performance and sales, drastic changes brought by COVID-19, have meant that data analytics will likely need to expand so that they analyse the effects of these changes in other aspects of their organisation. Data analytics can be used by businesses to work out how quickly they will be able to rehire furloughed workers, and places such as hospitals and healthcare providers will use data to manage and monitor the availability of critical supplies and staffing.
If you manage or own a company and are not collecting data, now is the time to get onboard the data train, and understand fully why data is important. There is no doubt about the value of having real-time data, and as no one knows what is around the corner, you need to be prepared and able to assess then make decisions quickly.
Conclusion
Companies need the right tools to respond quickly, and the data analytics products available today are very powerful tools which you should be using for your business. Then once you have all the data you need, the challenge is then what you do with it and how decisions you make to come out stronger on the other side of the pandemic, but with all the information in front of you, it’ll be a lot easier to make these decisions.
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