EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

DATA PROVIDES VALUABLE INSIGHT FOR BUSINESSES INTO WHAT THEIR CUSTOMERS WANT AND HOW TO STREAMLINE OPERATIONS .

Data can make the difference between being a successful company or not . The most important part is to harness your data , whether you are a start-up or a large business . Things to consider are how do you store your data ? How do you collect and analyse it ? Companies can consider using an IT partner to make sure this is done correctly . O ’ Donnell said : “ According to Gartner , businesses that harness their data correctly are five times more likely to succeed over competitors . Ensuring that you ’ re gaining the best perspective for decision-making by understanding your business metrics and market trends is a must for a strong business .”

Every business will be looking for different results with its data , but it can help make decisions , increase profits , improve processes and increase customer satisfaction .

Suki Dhuphar , Head of EMEA at Tamr , believes a data product manager is invaluable . He said : “ Essentially , data products represent the best version of a company ’ s data . They are clean , curated and trustworthy datasets that make data tangible and accessible to everyone within the organisation , fostering more accurate insights for business decision-making .

“ We advise employing a data product manager to maximise the value derived from data products . Responsible for developing and delivering data products , a data product manager ensures data product implementation and , arguably even more crucially , that the data products provide tangible value .”

Data can be used to show stakeholders how the business is doing . It can also be used to explore emerging markets .

Data governance is also very important as it includes putting measures in to protect stored and transmitted data and creating strategic data access policies . These policies will help to avoid data breaches , which is all too common . Apricorn , a leading manufacturer of softwarefree , 256-bit AES XTS hardware-encrypted USB drives , recently announced findings from annual Freedom of Information ( FoI ) responses into data breaches and device loss within government departments in the UK . The results highlighted an alarming number of customers potentially affected by breaches declared to the Information Commissioner ’ s Office ( ICO ) by the HM Revenue and Customs ( HMRC ) during 2023 .

HMRC noted that the number of customers potentially affected by the 18 breach reports on notifiable incidents disclosed to the ICO totalled 10,209 . This is concerning given the sensitivity of the data that HMRC houses .

Three experts on the following pages discuss data analytics and how they can be improved .

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