Across industries, businesses are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools and other technological measures as part of a digital transformation. These efforts are intended to drive business growth through greater efficiency and cost savings. However, companies can face a major roadblock to achieving positive results from automation and digitization — the lack of a data-driven culture. 

It’s not enough for businesses to simply implement tools that utilize data. They need to create a data-driven culture within the company. And yet, NewVantage Partner’s Big Data and AI Executive Survey revealed that the majority of C-suite technology and business executives for top companies say they have yet to forget a data-driven culture. The percentage of companies that identify as data-driven even declined each year between 2017 and 2020. 

So how can you shift your company culture to center data in the decision-making process? Embedded analytics can help. 

What is Embedded Analytics?

Typically, users need to open a separate software application to access and use data analysis tools. They connect their data streams to these separate applications and run their analysis wholly within those applications. Regularly having to toggle to other applications can make using these tools tedious for the end user, though. Whereas dedicated data teams may not have an issue using a variety of analytical tools, other employees may find this interrupts their natural workflow. 

That’s where embedded analytics comes into play. Embedded analytics directly integrates data analysis capabilities and data visualizations into other software applications. When companies use embedded analytics, employees can see real-time data analysis dashboards and reports within the applications they already use regularly. No more toggling around to dedicated data analysis tools. 

Though having to toggle to additional analysis software may not sound like much of a hardship, removing this obstacle can make a huge difference for employees. It’s about meeting employees where they are and making it as simple as possible for them to utilize data within their established workflows. That’s why embedding analytics can play such a key role in shifting your company culture to be more data-driven. 

Example of Embedded Analytics

For example, you might see companies use embedded analytics with their customer relationship management (CRM) applications. This allows the customer success, sales, and marketing departments to analyze customer data in applications they already use and understand. Finding and applying data-driven insights then becomes part of their standard work throughout the customer life cycle. 

How to Create a Data-Driven Culture

So, beyond taking advantage of analytics tools embedded in your existing applications, what else can you do to create a data-driven culture within your organization? Follow these guidelines:

Start at the Top

You won’t successfully build a data-driven culture from the ground up. Instead, start by focusing on getting top executives in your enterprise on board with the integration of data into your company decision-making. These top managers can then lead by example for the rest of the company. 

Leaders within your company may want to show employees that they evaluate proposals according to the data that does (or doesn’t) support them, for example. This would model to everyone in the company the importance of taking evidence-based actions supported by data analysis. Furthermore, other employees will begin integrating these behaviors into their own work as well.  

Put a Data Roadmap in Place

You need to lay out a plan — a roadmap — for how you plan to use data in your company and your objectives for using this data. Striving toward data-driven culture is great, but leaders and employees alike within your company must understand why that culture is important. 

Give each team or department in your company some guidelines about their roles in your new data-driven culture. Refrain from placing all the data analysis responsibility on your data team. Ideally, each team will be able to interact with your internal and external data to direct their decisions. For that to happen, you need to spell out how each department will access and leverage your data. 

Implement the Right Data Collection Methods

Data analysis is only as good as the data you use. To transform your company culture and get the most out of your data, you’ll need to implement the right data collection methods. Consider how you’re collecting your data and where there might be room for error in those methods. You also need to think about how and where you’re aggregating the data you collect. 

Make Sure Your Staff is Trained in Analyzing and Visualizing Data

In most cases, your staff will need additional training in analyzing and visualizing data as part of your company culture shift. That doesn’t mean that all of your employees need to become experts in data analysis, however. Provide employees with enough training that they can effectively use data to guide decision-making within their roles. For some employees, that may mean a higher level of data literacy than others depending on their roles within the company and the types of decisions they make. 

Now is the Time to Adopt a Data-Driven Culture 

If you don’t already have a data-driven culture within your organization, there’s no better time to start developing one. With a data-driven culture, you’ll be able to reap the full benefits of data analysis to gain competitive advantages and drive innovation. 

Make sure you lead by example and model data-driven decision-making to catalyze a wider shift in your company culture. Choosing the right data analysis tools is incredibly important as well, if you want this new data-focused culture to stick. Look no further than Live Earth. Live Earth is the ideal tool for pushing your company forward and developing a data-driven culture. By leveraging AI and diversified real-world data sets, Live Earth offers enterprises real-time insights from their data. You can use the platform to improve fraud and anomaly detection, mitigate risks, and forecast more accurately. Visualize the ways that data can transform your business by scheduling a call with our Live Earth Team today.