Is your organization getting everything out of its data?

Whatever you do and whichever industry you work in, you will always have to make decisions. These decisions should, at least in part, be based on data. To make sure this growing amount of data leads to well-founded decisions, a high degree of corporate data literacy is important. In this blog, find out what corporate data literacy involves and which factors play a role.

Can you 'read' data?

By combining data, you can analyze it and use your analyses to improve processes. You can do all of this in an analytics solution such as Qlik Sense. Using analytics is not limited to a specific industry and can be used anywhere to make decisions. All it takes is for your organization to be data literate. This does not mean everyone has to be a statistician, mathematician or data scientist. Being data literate means you know the fundamentals of data, data analysis and the tools and techniques needed for it. It means you can read, analyze, approve or question data. However, research by the Data Literacy Project, which Qlik contributes to, shows that few people consider themselves data literate.

Corporate Data Literacy

Nearly all business leaders recognize that data is important within their industry and for making decisions within a company. However, only 8% of these companies have made changes to the way they use data in the past 5 years. In fact, making data-driven decisions scores lowest of the three dimensions measured to calculate the 'Corporate Data Literacy Score'. This means that even companies that do have data-literate employees still do not efficiently turn data into usable information.

Especially in larger organizations, this means there are still many undiscovered insights and efficiency gains to be found. These will only be uncovered if the right questions are asked by the right people. More and more data is becoming available on the work floor, while many employees do not (yet) know how to use this data properly. The degree to which employees can read, analyze and assess data is therefore crucial. The higher the level of data literacy, the more questions will be asked and answered.

Two thirds (63%) of managers worldwide have indicated they want to work on the level of data literacy within their organizations. So how do you make your organization data literate? Corporate Data Literacy cannot be achieved simply by hiring data specialists. Corporate Data Literacy is an organization's ability to read, analyze, use for decisions, question and share data within the organization. As part of the Data Literacy Project, Qlik has developed a Corporate Data Literacy Score that is built on three pillars: Data Literacy Skills, Data-driven Decision Making and Data Dispersion.

Data Literacy Skills

Data-literate organizations need employees who are data literate. Many organizations acquire data skills by hiring people, but education programs are also needed to help all employees understand and use data in their roles within the organization.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Making data-driven decisions is measured on two aspects: Data Decentralization and Data Resources. Data decentralization means making all the data that is needed available, and Data Resources are the means needed to gather and present insights in order to make data-driven decisions.

Data Dispersion

Data dispersion is the degree to which data is used within the organization. It is important that every department, and not just clusters of specialists, has the ability to gain insights and make decisions based on them.

Ready to get started?

New technologies in data and analytics are emerging ever faster. As a result, more and more data is becoming available to employees in all kinds of departments. However, creating value by turning this data into usable insights is hindered when employees do not have the right skills to do something with it. It is therefore important that, as a company and as an individual, you do not fall further behind and start developing data literacy within the organization. E-mergo can support you with workshops and an information analysis. Schedule an appointment with us via the button below to discuss the status of your organization's corporate data literacy and how it could be improved.