StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures Article | The Significance of Data Optimization During Covid-19 Pandemic | Data Optimization | Data Management

The Significance of Data Optimization During Covid-19 Pandemic

StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures Article | The Significance of Data Optimization During Covid-19 Pandemic | Data Optimization | Data ManagementUntil recently, very few CEOs, IT, or marketing professionals would have put ‘data optimization’ high on the list of agenda items that keep them up at night. These days — and by my estimation — this notion has become a top priority for the majority of businesses. Given the impact of events surrounding COVID-19, I view this not a matter of if, but when decision makers also arrive at this conclusion.

The simple fact is that businesses need to be able to build trusted relationships with their customers beyond the physical spaces represented by storefronts and square footage. As ironic as that sounds, what distinguishes data is its human factor. Interpreting and making decisions based on data during a time when competitors are trying to capture the attention of their consumers is vital.

Today, amid a global pandemic and subsequent overhaul of how businesses access and interface with their customers, we find ourselves suddenly competing on a level playing field that is the attention of a phone, computer, or TV. No foot traffic, no event, launch, or experience — just time and attention on a screen, and it’s the ones who have optimized their data who are winning.

Here are a few tentpoles to consider points of entry towards optimizing your data:

The Customer

The modern customer has high expectations and demands that enterprises strive to achieve — at all costs. A business with quality data optimization services has comprehensive information that is customer-centered, dynamic, and always available.

As a result, there is a real-time ability to address all customer demands without going through a complicated, costly, or time-consuming process. Naturally, as customers become more aggressive in having their requirements met, your business stays a step ahead of competitors, when it comes to availing quick and accurate solutions. The most critical aspect of better data management is the reduction of inefficiencies in operations that cost businesses as much as 25% of their revenue. This is because enterprises with better control over their data reduce the potential of making mistakes. As a result, their trustworthiness among customers in any niche industry grows, and they become seen as market leaders.

Direct Sources

Long gone are the days when e-commerce strategy meant focusing only on SEO. Mike Ewing, a Customer Success Strategy & Operations Manager, writes on Hubspot, ”if you rely on free/direct sources of traffic, you are fighting shared losses. Direct has gone from 75% to 9% over the last ten years, while e-commerce has been growing 15-25%.”

Today, you need to find a way to seamlessly integrate direct traffic, transaction data, demographic data, paid search, comparison shopping engines, marketplaces, mobile, and social media. That’s a lot! Each medium comes with its own tools, database, and strategies — only by combining all can your business stay on top of your competition… and crush your topline goals and quotas.

Bottom line: Your products and services should be where your clients are.

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Speed

The data modern enterprises depend upon may have many different sources and a variety of structured and unstructured formats. In many cases, the data will contain inaccuracies, inconsistencies, redundant information, or other anomalies that make it unnecessarily difficult to access critical information in a timely and comprehensive fashion.

The data optimization process makes use of sophisticated data quality tools that help to access, organize, and cleanse data — whatever the source — to maximize the speed and comprehensiveness with which pertinent information can be extracted, analyzed, and put to use. That enhanced availability of critical information provides businesses with significant benefits.

Data optimization helps business leaders understand and improve their business processes so that they can reduce the wastage of time and money. Consider the information age, a time and place where consumers expect to get fast, accurate, and comprehensive information from the business they are dealing with.

Embracing Data

Amid the panic and unrest of a rapidly changing COVID-19 environment, business leaders in the trenches must lean in to leverage all tools to make themselves more digitally enabled… if for no other reason than to maintain their relationship with their customers during times when human contact is not an option.

We must all consider new ways to bring the human factor into decisions around data optimization. The time is now.


About the Author

Megan Silva is a data optimization leader and advocate. Over the course of her 15-year career in data, Megan has led numerous business and process improvement initiatives, with an emphasis and focus on increased capabilities and decreased costs. She is best known for her leadership on measurable and scalable results, defining customer journeys, aligning content for automated campaigns, and improving contact and data strategy. Megan holds a Master of Industrial Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

StrategyDriven Process Management Article | 5 Best Strategies to Streamline Your Workflow

5 Best Strategies to Streamline Your Workflow

StrategyDriven Process Management Article | 5 Best Strategies to Streamline Your WorkflowYour workflow is an essential part of making sure your business is at peak performance. However, there will always be areas of improvement that can remove otherwise redundant tasks or repurpose them into something more useful. But how exactly can you streamline your workflow without causing yourself too much of a headache?

What You Should Be Doing to Streamline Your Workflow

There are a number of things you can do to streamline your workflow. From making sure that you have the necessary manpower to automating various functions. However, not all of these strategies will be a winner and increase your productivity. So we’ve put together a list of the best strategies that you can use to streamline your workflow.

Observe Your First Workflow and Figure Out What Works and What Doesn’t

The very first thing you should always do whenever you plan out a workflow change is making sure you observe the workflow you’re trying to change. This lets you figure out what can be changed or removed from your process. The time it takes to observe your initial workflow will vary depending on your business, so make sure you’re ready to invest time in doing this.

Keep Everything Documented

Having documentation might seem to be a trivial matter, however, many businesses simply make changes and just move forward with their business without a paper trail behind them. This paper trail will help you in the future in case the new workflow has flaws that need to be ironed out or to cover yourself if something goes wrong.

Look for Areas You Can Automate

Automation is the way of the future for many businesses. Not only do you eliminate the need for a person to do the job for you, but it also eliminates human error. Manual work is some of the biggest problem areas of most workflows because of how it highly depends on the person doing it. An automated script will simply do it perfectly every single time. This let’s you shift your manpower to areas that truly need a human operator.

Involve Your Staff With The Changes

Your staff are the ones responsible for making sure that your business stays afloat and getting your products and services to customers. If there are people that would be the perfect help for figuring out what you need to change in the workflow, it’s your staff. They’ll be able to tell you exactly what you need to do to streamline your workflow. Interacting with them early on also let’s them prepare for the workflow changes that they’re going to have to do

Have the Right Person For The Job

We’ve previously mentioned that your staff is highly responsible for the success of your business as a whole while also being your best advisors when doing workflow changes. Your choice of staff can also heavily matter when it comes to making sure the work that needs to be done is done effectively. So a good strategy to improve and streamline your workflow is to have the best staff that can fit in with your business. There are some great ways you can do this. One of the best ways is to get a staffing and recruiting company to find the right candidates for you as they find candidates that fit in with your company culture and general needs.

Final Thoughts…

Your workflow is indicative of how effective your business will be. So it only makes sense to ensure that it is as streamlined as much as possible. With these streamlining strategies in mind, you will have no problems ensuring that your workflow is the best it can be.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article | 4 Things You Should be Looking for When Picking a Contract Management Solution

4 Things You Should be Looking for When Picking a Contract Management Solution

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article | 4 Things You Should be Looking for When Picking a Contract Management SolutionBad contract management costs companies in many different ways, and it exposes them to unnecessary risks. This is why contract management is essential to the long-term success of your business. Fortunately, there are many contract management systems on the market to choose from. The challenge is finding the right one for your business’ needs. Here are four things you should be looking for when picking a contract management solution.

Ease of Use

Many firms are reluctant to adopt a contract management system because of the time, money, and effort involved. When picking an option, you aren’t just spending money on a software application and its support, you also have to train people how to use it. This is why ease of use is one of the top factors to consider when researching contract management systems.

Lifecycle Management

Before you start shopping for contract management software, it is important that you understand what contract lifecycle management is and how important it is. It isn’t enough to have a decent data repository. You need a system that manages contracts from initial negotiation to completion. This ensures that salespeople present contracts from approved templates, have any changes to the standard contract approved, and save the final version in an accessible database.

The ideal contract management system ties into your task management system and email servers. This allows your legal department to know what contracts need to be reviewed as soon as possible and how much work is in their queue. Salespeople can also look up the state of the contract, and the system may send a final version of the contract to the customer for approval or just their own records. The best contract management systems notify management when contracts are up for renewal or may no longer be legally valid.

The ideal contract management system is customisable, allowing you to integrate it with your finance, customer relationship management, and enterprise resource planning system. Then your customer support staff can view a customer contract when someone calls in with a complaint, and approved contracts automatically feed into your financial planning systems.

Collaboration and Sharing Capabilities

A good contract management system should allow you to create, assign, manage, collaborate, and execute in minutes instead of days. For example, a good tool would allow a salesperson to upload a draft contract to the repository and have it available for legal review within moments. Team members should be able to share relevant documents and discuss them in real-time, and approval should arrive within minutes of legal signing it off.

Risk Management

You should also make sure that the contract management tool you choose has risk management capabilities. For example, the tool may notify you when contracts expire so that you don’t continue to work without a valid legal agreement in place. Or it may warn you when there are risks associated with various contracts. Not all contract management systems have legal analytics built-in but knowing when contracts are now null and void due to changes in the law allows you to work on mitigating that risk or renegotiating the contracts.

Email and spreadsheets aren’t good enough for managing your contracts. Choose a contract management system that streamlines your administrative processes, manages risk, and provides the legal protection you expect from your contractual agreements.

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Preparing for the Next Mission: 5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Military Storage Unit

Preparing for the Next Mission: 5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Military Storage Unit

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Preparing for the Next Mission: 5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Military Storage UnitLife as a member of the military can be challenging, but there are many ways to make things simpler and easier. Service members often find themselves being reassigned to different bases or even forced to move from one residence to another in the same area.

When such situations arise, renting a storage unit can make it easier to complete the transition smoothly. Having access to storage often does away with issues that would otherwise complicate life as a service member.

Because members of the military have distinctive needs, it will always be best to choose a storage service that will accommodate those needs well. Keep the following five things in mind when looking for a storage unit, and your career in the military should go a little more smoothly.

1. Some Companies Offer Discounts for Service Members

Business owners often respect the service that members of the military provide, and some of them show their appreciation in concrete ways. Discounts available at StorageWest and other storage companies can cut the cost of renting a unit by quite a bit.

That can make a large difference when a unit will be rented for many months or even years. Service members who get reassigned away from home for long periods will always be able to put the savings to good use.

2. Some Storage Companies Regularly Serve Members of the Military

Millions of Americans actively serve in the United States Armed Forces at any given time, with millions more making up the reserves. Some storage companies owe a majority of their business to service members, and they tend to be the best and easiest to work with.

Storage facilities located near military bases will almost always be staffed by people who understand what it is like to serve. That can end up being invaluable, as it will mean being able to rely on the advice of someone who is well-equipped to provide it.

When a storage company regularly rents units to members of the military, its offerings will often be tailored to suit the needs of that customer base, too. That can end up enabling a better fit for the kinds of situations service members most often find themselves needing to address.

3. Size is a Good Place to Start

Storage units come in many varieties, so it can feel a bit overwhelming to choose one. The best way to get started will normally be to figure out just how much space will be required.

Fortunately, there are some relatively straightforward ways to do so. Many storage companies maintain lists that allow the size of a home, apartment, or existing storage space to be used to select an appropriate unit.

4. Other Options Can Matter, as Well

While focusing on units of an appropriate size will make for a good start, other features and extras can be worth emphasizing, too. Service members who own valuable electronics, for instance, often find that storage facilities featuring strong security suit their needs the best. There are many ways of controlling access, some of which are likely to be more effective than others.

5. Flexibility Can be Invaluable

Although most members of the military can count on serving for well-defined stints, it can be useful to be able to adjust storage unit arrangements later on. A service member who initially planned to move back to a particular town, for example, might end up with different plans and a need to give up a rented unit.

Keep the five facts above in mind when looking for a storage unit as a service member and the process should go smoothly. It is so common for members of the military to use self-storage that advice from others is normally easy to come by, too.

The Beginner's Guide to Choosing the Perfect Domain Name

The Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Domain Name

The Beginner's Guide to Choosing the Perfect Domain NameChoosing a domain name is probably the most difficult thing you have to do when setting up a website. You may think you need to spend days trying to figure out what name to use but there is no reason you can’t come up with a great name in a short time.

This article provides you with tips that can help ease the process and ensure you choose a name that suits your brand perfectly.

So, how can you arrive at that perfect domain name?

Think of something that adequately represents what you do

Your domain name should give visitors an idea of what the website is about even before they visit your landing page.

Your domain name should project what you do as a company – if, for instance, you run a dance crew and you are looking to get traction for your crew online, a domain name like thecreativedancers would be great.

Choose a name that is not complicated

Because less is more, and simplicity is sophisticated, it is best practice to choose a domain name without complications.

What you want is a simple domain name that checks the following boxes:

  • Easy to memorize and pronounce: If people find it difficult to memorize your domain name, they may never return to your website or share that amazing post you have there with their friends. You need a name that people won’t struggle to remember, preferably a short one.
  • No punctuation marks or numbers: Underscores and hyphens are not your friends. It is better to use words instead.
  • No wrong spellings: It may sound great to use realtymegist but 97% of the time people would type in realtimegist instead.

Try a domain name generator

There are applications that can give you different options to choose from. All you have to do is input a search term and you will find many results related to it.

Chances are you will find what you are looking for, but in case you don’t get one immediately, you will still have more domain name options you can tweak until you find one that works for you.

Some top domain name generators are Lean Domain Search and Nameboy.

The dictionary/thesaurus is your friend.

When nothing else seems to work you may need to use a thesaurus or a dictionary.

It is not easy to find the right words or phrase that capture what your brand is about, but don’t give up on that idea or word because it is already taken, a careful search through the thesaurus will provide you with synonyms and related ideas you can use.

Avoid legally contestable names, no matter how awesome

People get sued for infringing on a trademark. To avoid this, ensure that the name you choose isn’t similar to something that is already being used, especially by another brand which operates in the same niche as yours.

You can find this out by searching on Google. Scan each result on pages one and two and if you are in the clear, buy the domain.

Buy your domain from a trusted source

The internet is fraught with all kinds of fraudsters. Domain name registrars are not exempt either. Therefore we recommend that you purchase a domain name from tested and trusted sites, which have a reputation to protect.

Choose a perfect domain name extension

There are many domain name extensions, the oldest and most popular is .com. About 47% of websites use this TLD (top-level domain). You could also opt for more specific TLDs that make it easier for people to find you because it creates awareness in and of itself.

For instance, consider a .shop or .store if you plan on creating an e-commerce site. If it’s a local business intended to focus on local customers, using a TLD for that country is not a bad idea either. Other options include: .it, .blog, .club, .fm, and so on.

With all of these at the back of your mind, that seemingly difficult process of choosing the perfect name for your domain name becomes a walk in the park. For more information on choosing the right domain name for your website visit https://www.openhost.co.nz/domain-names