Data Transformation
Why digital transformation always needs data transformation.
Why do digital transformations fail?
The most common answer is data.
Businesses are racing to implement innovations in automation, analytics, AI and machine learning, but without good quality data to fuel them, these projects just can’t reach their full potential – and some will fall apart altogether.
For any digital transformation to succeed, it needs data transformation as the first step. Learn more about our data transformation services today.
Data transformation changes the way that a business engages with its data. Thanks to the digital boom, virtually every part of an organisation has some kind of relationship with data: whether that’s initiating, editing or using the information.
Yet ‘looking after’ that data is often overlooked as a strategic imperative. It’s often left to local teams to fix their own data problems and maintain data processes – an impossible task when that data may impact multiple systems and departments across the whole business.
Data transformation changes that attitude, giving accountability to every part of the business and recognising data as a valuable resource that needs to be maintained.
A lot of the issues businesses face during digital transformation projects boil down to poor quality, unreliable and inconsistent data. There are several causes: some are easy to recognise (but not always easy to fix) while others are hidden, only becoming apparent when a mistake is made, or a new digital initiative fails.
Data siloes
How many data sources are scattered across your business? Without transformation, data is often stored in disparate locations, from individual spreadsheets to departmental data management initiatives.
Data transformation ensures that every individual and department knows how and where data should be stored, and appreciates the benefit of storing that data correctly.
Duplicate data
With multiple people originating or uploading data – especially from data siloes – it is easy for data to become duplicated. These duplicates skew results, make it difficult for executives to trust in data-driven decision-making, and can delay or compromise innovations such as machine learning.
Data transformation creates processes that prevent duplications by governing data holistically.
Human error
The best technology in the world is only as good as the people using it.
Data transformation ensures that people have accountability for the data they upload, edit and use, to minimise errors including missing information and mistakes that degrade data quality over time.
A digital transformation project doesn’t automatically include data transformation. Data initiatives, such as the creation of data lakes or implementation of master data management, give you a method to process your data, but they don’t ensure that data is being handled correctly by the business.
By creating a robust data governance framework for your data, and changing the way that individuals engage with that data, a data transformation initiative lays a solid groundwork for future digital transformations – and it takes a combination of data services to make it happen:
Data transformation should be the first step on any business’ journey to digital transformation, whatever the end goal. But even if you have already started a digital project, it’s not too late to begin your data transformation now.
At Amplifi, we’ve helped businesses across various sectors, at different stages, transform their data to make digital innovations a success. For more information about our data transformation services, contact us to tell us about your digital challenges. We can help you ensure that your data quality – and your business – is ready to tackle them.
