A company wide, data supported work can get much more out of the information and secure the company’s long term success. The past year has turned a lot upside down and hardly any company has remained untouched by the changes that the financial situation has experienced in recent months. Digitization has made a huge leap, the acceptance of home office has increased and the way of working has changed.
But despite the challenges of the past year, many companies still have an outdated way of thinking when it comes to IT: they separate IT teams from their other teams. As a result, important topics such as data management – the process of collecting, storing and using information – are only delegated in one way and tend to be forgotten.
This has consequences: For example, a small company that sells household goods on site in its shop is hit hard by the pandemic and the lack of customers and now has to turn its entire business upside down. If it changes to a purely online offer, the buying habits of customers also change drastically. Without an understanding of management, it is extremely difficult for the small business to effectively respond to customer behavior and seize opportunities.
However, if the company has management guidelines that are well understood and largely followed by all employees, the knowledge gained from the data enables employees to adapt more quickly, identify sources of income more easily and reduce costs in a targeted manner. In order for this to happen, it is a risk that management drive a change in work by building bridges between IT and other departments, creating a data work for all employees.
Communication Is Crucial
A company’s ability to manage its data starts with how well employees understand their responsibilities. According to a recent study, small and medium sized enterprises to the pandemic, which has caused around half of the decision-makers surveyed to improve their employee communication on the subject of data management. But it is important that this communication is carried out effectively.
Since topics such as IT security require frequent updates, practices must be communicated regularly in order to be effective. However, employees are usually difficult to get excited about IT topics. The cure for communication fatigue is to keep data supported as short and understandable as possible.