By centralising disparate sources into a single platform, companies can take better advantage of powerful analytical tools, identify patterns quickly to inform strategy adjustments and improve forecasting capabilities while reducing manual effort.
Read on to understand why unified data and intelligence hold the key to businesses outperforming their competition in the rapid acceleration of today's competitive landscape.
Overview of data unification and intelligence
Data unification enables companies to streamline their processes by collecting, blending, and understanding data from multiple sources. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI)-based insights can help map out trends, spot anomalies, uncover key opportunities for improvement, monitor performance metrics, and drill down into complex relationships within datasets.
By combining unified data and intelligence, organisations can gain better visibility into their operations and make real-time decisions based on actionable insights.
Benefits of leveraging solutions that enable data unification and AI
By extending their systems’ landscape to improve data capturing whilst introducing intelligent algorithms, businesses can access their data quickly while providing actionable insights into how changes could increase efficiency or profitability.
Additionally, with a single source of truth, companies can ensure that everyone on their team has access to the most up-to-date information, reducing potential errors or discrepancies.
This unified approach also promotes improved communication within departments and teams as people rely on a single set of data rather than different versions at differing times.
a. Streamline Decision Making
Decision-making can be a complicated process, but it doesn't have to be. When decisions are made in an organised and efficient manner, the whole process is simplified and streamlined.
EPM platforms like OneStream, provide capabilities such as built-in ETL, data blending and analytics, combined with sensible machine learning (SML) that enable processing of large amounts of financial and operational data to identify trends, anomalies, and patterns.
This, in turn, can help Finance teams make more informed and accurate decisions, such as identifying cost-saving opportunities, predicting future revenues, and identifying areas for improvement.
Additionally, AI can help automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as data entry, calculations and report generation, freeing up time for more strategic decision making.
By integrating technology and AI into the decision-making processes, speed and accuracy can be improved, ultimately leading to better and more reliable business outcomes.
b. Improve Insightful Forecasting
Insightful forecasting is key for organisations in order to chart out their future plans and align resources strategically. Improving forecasting can enable better decision-making due to more actionable information. It involves an increased focus on:
data collection using advanced technology platforms
making sure gaps in planning are addressed
integrating historic data with current trends
leveraging AI to improve the predictive models
team collaboration across the organisation
Through this, organisations can achieve a more complete and accurate picture of past and future market scenarios.
c. Increase Speed Of Execution
Increasing the speed of execution is a key component of success in any business. Companies that use processes and technologies that focus on rapid execution can complete tasks quickly and efficiently, which allows them to get ahead of their competition.
Automation, streamlining processes, and implementing intelligent technologies are all approaches that can push businesses forward when it comes to speed of execution.
By optimising operations and procedures the desired outcome can be achieved faster than ever before, helping organisations make smarter decisions with accurate data available at their fingertips.
Impact on Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is becoming more important in business, especially as competition increases and operations become increasingly complex.
Organisations must create timely strategies to ensure they remain competitive, capitalise on growth opportunities, and remain agile to changes in the marketplace. When done right, strategic planning can have a positive impact on businesses in the form of increased efficiency and productivity, reduced operational costs, improved risk management ability, enhanced customer experience, and increased market share.
However, failure to plan strategically may have detrimental long-term effects on business performance. It is therefore imperative that organisations meticulously plan their strategies to maximise effectiveness and achieve desired results while minimising negative consequences.
a. More Accurate Predictions
With the recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies (i.e. GPT-4), we now have faster and more accurate predictions at our disposal.
By analysing large sets of data to uncover patterns and trends, machine algorithms can generate results that are far more accurate than traditional methods. This is extremely beneficial for businesses looking to stay ahead of the competition by predicting customer behaviour or forecasting demand for their products and services.
It is an exciting new era for the industry, with potential applications that could revolutionise how businesses operate around the globe.
b. Improved Customer Experience
Customers constantly demand quicker, easier and more convenient ways to access services. It is important to keep up with technological advances to be present in their daily lives and meet these demands.
By providing an improved customer experience through implementing innovative solutions, businesses can improve user engagement by ensuring a seamless customer journey from purchase to delivery.
These innovations also platform for businesses to gain insights into the customer's wants and needs through data-driven solutions and other analytics which can then be used for the improvement of overall service processes.
c. Reduced Time to Market For Products/Services
Reducing time to market is essential for businesses in a fast-paced, ever-changing industry. Introducing new products or services quickly can ensure that your business is always up to date and that you are the first to offer them to customers. By utilising specialised software, streamlined production systems, and careful planning, businesses can reduce their time to market dramatically.
This leads to more innovative products, reaching customers faster with lower costs. Not only does this cut costs on production runs and advertising, but it also allows for longer product life cycles as customers no longer have as much incentive to switch suppliers. Faster time to market means better engagement with customers and a higher likelihood of success.
What it takes to leverage unified data and intelligence
Creating a single source of truth to enable data unifications combined with artificial intelligence requires the right organisation, resources and environment. It starts with determining the best data sources – be it open-source or proprietary, structured or unstructured – along with the right technology platforms and professionals who can generate and extract valuable insights from this data.
That’s why hiring skilled and knowledgeable individuals is essential as they will be responsible for consolidating data into a meaningful bundle of information that can identify opportunities to achieve greater efficiency.
Additionally, creating an infrastructure that allows for sharing of knowledge between different departments is paramount to make sure that everyone can capitalise on this data to reach desired outcomes.
a. Invest in the Right Technology Solutions
Investing in the right technology solutions is essential for any business. By staying up-to-date with the latest technology solutions, companies can gain an edge over competitors and improve their overall efficiency and productivity.
Technology platforms like OneStream enable businesses to integrate seamlessly with other systems, access and store data securely and unify consolidation, planning & reporting. Additionally, combined with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, it can provide predictive insights for strategic planning, enabling companies to stay ahead of market trends and capitalise on new opportunities.
b. Utilise Automation and Machine Learning Technologies to Increase the Efficiency and Accuracy of Results
Automation and machine learning technologies can significantly increase the accuracy and efficiency of many processes. By leveraging the latest cutting-edge technologies, organisations are able to reduce costs and time associated with traditional manual processing.
Moreover, automation processes enable more accurate decision making, freeing up personnel to do higher value work. Automation is being successfully applied in all sorts of industries from finance to healthcare, allowing data to be accessed faster while providing greater insight into understanding customer behaviour. Thus, utilising automation and machine learning technologies is an important consideration for organisations looking to maximise efficiency and accuracy of their results in 2023 and beyond.
How To Stay Ahead Of The Pack With Unified Data And Intelligence
Organisations can stay ahead of their competition, responding quickly to changing customer needs and adapting their strategies to market trends. AI and machine learning can be harnessed to automatically recognise meaningful patterns in customer interactions and suggest strategic actions for optimising revenue streams.
This powerful combination of data-driven insights and automated strategy implementation gives organisations the upper hand when it comes to effectively managing their resources and empowering them to take leading positions in their respective markets.
At PRYZM, we are dedicated to helping our clients stay ahead of the pack with innovative solutions by leveraging these cutting-edge technologies. Our skilled professionals have the right experience to provide a tailored engagement based on your specific needs.
Contact us today to learn more about how we are supporting our clients with their EPM, data & AI strategies and how we can help you!