Generating value from data - some practical points for organisations

Data is increasingly a strategic asset. It can unlock hidden value for customers, provide the basis for entirely new services, and transform an organisation's understanding of how it is performing and what it can do better.

But many organisations struggle to realise this potential and generate value. Some common challenges, and potential solutions, are as follows:

• We don't have the capability we need: Many organisations don’t think they have the capability to do the analytics they need to. And often they are right. But there is a vast amount of content available for learning analytics (often free of charge) so developing some base line capability is actually not hard to do. Often all it takes is being willing to free up time for a few key individuals to develop their own capability, and allow them to practice their skills on the organisation’s own data. Of course, there is also the potential for strategic hires that can both deliver more specialised analytics capability, and develop others within the organisation. 
• We have everything we need, thank you very much: A related, but more dangerous, issue is thinking the organisation is overconfident and thinks that it has the capability it needs, when it really doesn't (someone knowing how to make a pivot table is not an analytics team!). A quick assessment of who has what level of capability is worthwhile to understand if your organisation is in this position.
• We don't know how we can use the data: Another common challenge is not understanding how data can be applied to deliver value. Organisations usually have numerous data sets, often sitting on local machines, unconnected. Doing a data audit, or running an exploratory workshop to see what data there is and how it could be applied to deliver value, is a powerful first step. 
• We have some many options! Probably the biggest barrier to realising the potential of data assets and capability is being unfocussed about your analytics effort. There can be a myriad of areas that data can be used to explore, and its important to prioritise these to focus attention where it will deliver most value. A rapid but rigorous process of identifying opportunities, and scoring them based on value potential and difficulty is a great way to prioritise and focus effort.