80% of the data is already in your company. Ready to overtake your competitors?

If the new pure-player entrants, competitors of established companies, have succeeded in cracking the market, it is thanks to the exploitation of data organised around Big Data and analytics, as IBM has endeavoured to show in its latest study devoted to digital maturity. However, these young leaders only use accessible, public data, i.e. 20% of all existing data. The other 80% is held by the established players. With so many living resources, it seems obvious that this sum of private information and its exploitation is becoming a real competitive advantage for these companies. This is how they are now leading their disruption and orienting their axes of differentiation.

The digital transformation of companies is based on the exploitation of their data and the increase of its value to enrich customer knowledge, the product experience or commercial performance. To achieve this, companies and their partners must create dedicated interfaces or rely on high-performance tools to store, consolidate, organise or exploit data.

What is the scope for improvement in the use of data?

According to the latest IBM study*. "According to the latest IBM Digital Maturity 2018 survey, 2/3 of organisations are aware that their business model and strategy is based on data and the use of data.

• 47% want to meet the new RGPD requirements first and foremost,
• 38% want to improve the quality and reliability of their data,
• 37% expect a democratisation of the use of analytics and the development of a data culture.

These figures reveal both the awareness of data-driven models and the distance that remains to be covered in optimising and making the most of data in companies.

To do this, we are seeing a reorganisation in the collection and use of types of data. For a long time, the focus was on customer journey data, but now attention is shifting to the collection, analysis and management of product data.

Because customer relations (so dear to companies!) depend on improving the customer experience, which in turn depends on the product experience. Indeed, improving the customer experience cannot be thought of without improving the product experience based on the exploitation of product data.

The emergence of tools such as PIM (Product Information Management) (Product Information Management) have made it possible to enhance the value of product data and, ultimately, enrich the customer experience. Echoing the IBM study, the PIM alone allows:

• Improve the quality and reliability of data,
• To set up tools for storing and processing all types of data,
• Improve data security.

In short, it supports the awakening of awareness of the data-driven model and definitively solves the company's data product problems.

"Management who have invested heavily in digital are sometimes frustrated by the lack of returns. Companies are becoming more effective in their marketing, but they still lack good quality data at scale. The main issue is to ensure that the data is accurate and up to date, and also to maximise sharing internally and also with external data."

Antoine Gourevitch, Senior Partner & Managing Director, BCG

Conquering new models of data-driven organisations

Formerly the responsibility of the IT department or the IT department, data management is now organised and consolidated at every level of a company. Data has become a cross-functional subject, an asset that all business lines must learn to manage with the support of the IT department.

And to consolidate its data strategy, the company needs to think ahead and devise new models that involve restructuring roles. Following the example of GRTgaz, committees are being set up to deal with data issues, from both an operational and strategic point of view. With the help of new figures such as the Chief Data Officer, it is becoming possible to take strategic decisions to organise data management in the best possible way, at the level of each link in the value chain: use of a cloud or not, development of specific platforms, etc.

But it is also with each business department and thanks to their involvement in the data management process that we can lead the company to a good data strategy.

As a result, companies are aware of data-driven processes and are structuring themselves in such a way that the IT department implements the tools and structures the data, while the CDO guarantees the quality of data processing. As for the business teams, they define the needs and tools required to exploit the data. With such processes in place, the IBM study confirms that real strategic thinking begins upstream of any action and irrigates each need according to an adapted data flow.

GRTgaz, resolves its pain points with the setting up of its governance committee

This can be seen in the example of GRTgaz, which was faced with "information quality problems due to a lack of a shared vision for its data repository", emphasises Hervé Constant, GRTgaz IT Director. To resolve these problems, the IT Department carried out in-depth work on the method and governance by mobilising the employees in charge of data management in their departments, as well as the general management. Established in a data governance committee, all the employees were able to identify the pain points relating to data management and finally avoid "millions of euros of work to improve the network".

This approach creates a virtuous circle where each business department is involved in data management from an operational point of view, while at the same time feeding the company's data strategy.

Finally, in order to make this data accessible to all of a department's stakeholders, the representation of the data is essential: user-centric dashboard, effective datavizualisation, etc.

Visualising the data becomes the nerve centre of the war and allows any contributor to keep an eye on each point of improvement. With an ergonomic representation, each contributor can analyse and monitor the data and draw up effective action plans, with proof to back it up:

"We finally have data governance at GRTgaz, with this committee which consolidates all the issues relating to data in the company. For example, with regard to open data, strategic issues are dealt with in the same way as operational issues. In addition to innovations in the use of data, such as data visualisation, this committee helps to raise awareness of digital culture among decision-makers in a broader sense.

Hervé Constant, CIO, GRTgaz

Aiming for sustainability in the use of data

Data has become dynamic and is being used in different ways due to the various technological revolutions.

Thinking about data becomes essential, as shown by the four new technologies that structure any platform worthy of the name:

• AI makes it possible to move from a static and deterministic model to a learning and probabilistic model for all employees of a company,
• The BlockChain enables the construction of secure, verified information networks shared by an ecosystem,
• The IoT animates the ecosystem and materializes the new digital uses of a company,
• The hybrid cloud opens up pre-existing information systems while ensuring that they can be scaled up.

It is interesting to consolidate every potentiality of these new technologies to enrich the data processing tools that are so important to a company's performance.

The arrival of cloud and SaaS within companies illustrate the capacity of evolution and performance of the business. To take the example of PIM, once designed in SaaS, the tool becomes a real hub for exchanging and sharing data between different departments. The information is made available, finely enriched and exploitable on all available channels while keeping a margin of adjustment thanks to the possibilities of personalization.

"To regain market leadership, companies are now building so-called 'ecosystem IS' that bring together customers, employees, partners, trusted third parties and competitors right from the design stage."

The learning company strikes back, Digital Maturity Benchmark 2018-2019, IBM and EBG.

The historical players are sitting on a real mine of information. More than a burden in their digital transformation, their history is an asset that can be used to accelerate performance.

Like PIM, these data exploitation tools interface with existing solutions without disrupting their organization. Placed between the ERP, the e-commerce site and all distribution channels the PIM connects to the entire ecosystem and becomes an effective response in the implementation of digital strategies of companies.

"One of his first actions was to reposition the transformation by characterising it in such a way that everyone understands that the company has foundations: IT, community, infrastructure platforms and ERP that are not a brake on acceleration. "This is why I insist on IT & Digital in my mission. "Even if it means working in parallel on subjects that Nathalie Wright characterises as accelerating, notably multi-channel.

Nathalie Wright, Group Digital & IT Transformation, Rexel

Conclusion

Controlling data is an essential element in the digital transformation of companies. Tools such as the Product Information Manager facilitate the work of teams by organising and structuring data within the company.

So, are you ready for a sprint from multi to omnichannel?

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Source: "The Learning Company Strikes Back", IBM and GSS, 2018