What is data driven decision making?

Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) is the process of using trusted data and insights to drive tactical business decisions that support key goals. Data analysts, scientists, stewards, engineers, and business leaders are just some of the core user groups for DDDM. But today, that’s shifting, as more departments and roles are seeing the benefits of integrating data into their daily decisions. To achieve this ideal state, organizations must align people, process, and technology in pursuit of a data culture.

A data culture describes an organizational culture of DDDM. Today, enterprises are waking up to the value of such a culture. In fact, organizations that embrace a data culture, in which every person has access to trusted data, along with the literacy and skills to use it wisely, are more likely to achieve revenue goals. A 2022 study found that 90% of organizations with a top-tier data culture either met or exceeded their revenue targets in the last 12 months.

By contrast, ignoring data leads to grave mistakes. For example, the Alation State of Data Culture Report, found that 97% of global data leaders report their companies have suffered the consequences of ignoring data, leading to bad investments, poor forecasts, or the loss of new revenue opportunities.

What are the benefits of data-driven decision making?

Data-driven decision making allows for greater transparency and accountability throughout the business as a whole. It makes the decision-making process faster and provides analysts with much clearer feedback from market research.

Research by BARC found that companies investing in their data are making better strategic decisions, have a better understanding of their customers and saw an average 8% increase in revenue.

So, it’s clear that companies should implement more data-driven decision making, but it’s not something they can simply decide to do. Companies need to create a more data-driven culture if they wish to truly implement this method. Which begs the question:

How do companies benefit from DDDM?

Companies in every industry have been trying to create a more data-driven culture for years. Find below some examples of how enterprises benefit from DDDM.

Texas Mutual Insurance Company accelerates DDDM to make competitive choices within 24 hours. Using Alation’s data catalog, the company can now deliver dashboards to business stakeholders 80% faster, enabling them to make choices about where to deploy critical capital as circumstances change.

Albertsons drives customer-centricity via its loyalty program. The data team uses the data catalog to tailor digital flyers that target loyalty club members, leading to ROI of:

• Data discovery conducted 67% times faster

• Personalized email resulted in 300% more redemptions than paper redemptions

• $300,000 in additional funded redemptions

Airline Reporting Corporation supports DDDM with a data catalog to develop new data-centric products and accelerate time-to-market. When data quality issues arise, they use the data catalog to resolve these challenges quickly.

Pull quote of Leonard Kwok, Senior Data Analyst, from Airline Reporting Corporation

Regeneron provides a centralized metadata hub so researchers can find data quickly, collaborate across the business – and deliver medicines to market faster.

Slide image from Regeneron showcasing the new roadmap for Biotech displaying the “conventional wisdom” vs “the Regeneron way”

Slide image displaying Regeneron Information and Data Explorer - RIDE

How can Alation help?

Your average organization today will collect data from many sources. A data catalog enables data engineers to collect that data in one place, where it may be processed, visualized, and integrated with other tools to support a self-service analytics environment. This not only benefits key decision-makers, it creates a historical repository from which the business can learn over time.

To make well-informed decisions with confidence, people need to trust that the data they are using is completely understood and trustworthy — and a data catalog is at the heart of that. If that isn’t the case, decisions become the Wild West of spreadsheets and lists. Alation’s data catalog helps people find, understand, and trust the data they need to make better business decisions.

Recently, Alation CEO Satyen Sagani spoke about the importance of trusted data and how Alation's Data Intelligence Platform helps organizations manage their data on Bloomberg Technology. Listen below to check out the insights.

For additional information on Alation's data catalog, please explore the Alation Data Catalog page.