DATA THINKING
‘Many companies find it difficult to keep pace with the digital transformation of our world. In response to this challenge, we developed the ‘data thinking’ approach to consultancy.
We provide specific, data-driven recommendations to help companies tackle the challenges they face in the modern world of business and to make use of the latest technological developments.’
Ravin Mehta
CEO
Digital transformation
New data-driven business models and digital processes demand a different mindset and a different approach. We call this approach data thinking. Businesses don’t always find it easy to identify opportunities arising from their digital processes and the treasure trove of data they hold. Our experts provide consultancy services and workshops to help businesses generate ideas and to get specialist departments sharing expertise and exploring ideas with software developers. Together, we analyze the feasibility of these ideas before developing a minimum viable product to bring the concept to life.
Using methods such as design thinking, we incorporate business needs and visions sourced from practical experience. We create lighthouse projects that illuminate the way for data enterprise and bring employees on board with the plans. We work in a structured way to move closer to the goal: Taking our Gartner-award-winning data science process model – which we have developed into a holistic process model for digitalization – as a starting point, we divide our successful data and transformation projects into clearly defined phases.
Data Thinking: A guide to success in the digital age
Data-driven strategy
The Internet of Things and the ability to monitor products in real-time using concepts such as digital twinning are opening up a host of new opportunities to companies. These new chances are driven by the enormous volumes of data businesses now have at their disposal. As the latest products continually send data back to the manufacturer throughout their service life, their creators can use big data analytics and AI to tap into an unprecedented wealth of information: They can tell their customers how to operate a product within perfectly configured parameters, or when best to perform maintenance to maximize a machine’s service life. This ability adds a new dimension to the data-holder’s ability to differentiate itself from its competitors through services. Early adopters firmly believe that processing data generated by machines, for example, to render it comprehensible and useful, is a worthwhile process that will pay for itself in the short or long-term.
Instead of the product itself, businesses are now able to sell its output: The printed word rather than the printer, or the laundry rather than the washing machine. In the case of consumer goods, this shift is redefining how manufacturers think about sustainability: Manufacturers can use high-quality materials rather than cheaper alternatives, and they can then reuse these materials when the product or appliance is returned at the end of its service life as part of a closed-loop system. Data-driven products and services bring companies closer to their end customers, and give them more access to more information on their customers, than ever before – data that can often be gathered directly via IoT platforms, rather than via the ‘middle men’ of distributors and dealers. However, when developing new business concepts, it is imperative that companies take steps to lift knowledge of specific domains out of specialist departments so that it can be utilized across the business.
The Next Big (Data) Thing
In our digital world, we have all come to expect that our needs will be fulfilled almost instantaneously. To make this happen, enormous volumes of data are constantly flowing back and forth in real-time in the background to our requests and demands. Businesses need to have a full and complete picture of their target market at all times – and keeping up with the pace is the only way to achieve this. The business world is evolving and constantly striving to analyze its customers and competitors more effectively.
From online sales campaigns to marketing tracking, businesses now have a huge range of monitoring, analysis, and evaluation tools at their fingertips. The digital transformation allows companies to respond faster, more flexibly, and more efficiently. The next big (data) thing marks the dawn of a new era in which we will be able to take all influencing factors into account and record everything going on around us.
This post is also available in: German