Don’t sacrifice data quality to the need for speed
Anyone who uses data to drive decision-making is issuing a single call right now: faster, faster, faster! The pressure is on for speed to insights, and everyone is scrambling to keep up. Many industries are turning to advances in technology to gain the required speed, but all of this running and rushing must be met with a modicum of caution. We can’t sacrifice other key priorities just because we are in a big, huge hurry.
Ceding quality to the speed-god is perhaps the biggest hurdle faced by these accelerated demands. Life’s most basic tasks aren’t done correctly when we rush, from brushing our teeth to cooking a meal. Little bits and pieces fall by the wayside, creating a less-than-ideal end result. When we speed through the data analysis and reporting process, we end up with insights that are missing key data and don’t provide a quality foundation for decisions.
When implementing a strategy for speed, and keeping data continuously updated, businesses need to find the right balance. Ideally, technology will expedite just the right steps of the process so that human researchers, data scientists and data-crunchers of all kinds can use their skills efficiently to ensure quality outcomes. This means that the technology is giving the people breathing room in order to do their jobs better. In this way, technology becomes a help, not a hindrance, in achieving the double-pronged goal of speed and quality.
We are all acutely aware of a recent example that illustrates the importance of these two goals. As the globe grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, fast, accurate data is providing the basis for life and death decisions. Governments, healthcare officials and other leaders are using updated data to create mandates and keep people safe. It’s easy to see in this situation that both speed and quality are vital.
Implementing the right data analysis and reporting technology
At OfficeReports, we’re all about using technology to help our clients do their jobs more efficiently. In fact, one of our major international customers said that our data reporting and analysis solutions have helped them achieve a time savings of more than 70%, not to mention increased accuracy in their data reporting.
One reason for these positive outcomes is that OfficeReports solutions can help eliminate manual error-prone processes in typical data analysis and reporting workflows. In addition, our team of experts provides hands-on consulting services to ensure that systems are set up correctly - both from a technology and human resource perspective - to ensure optimization.
Looking for speed? Of course you need fast access to continuously updated data, reported in a way that is easily shareable among team members and stakeholders. But simply leaving it at that is not enough. Remember to give data quality its place in the conversation so that you are making better decisions for consistent, positive results.