Data is quickly becoming a key driver for all business transformation endeavours across the globe given how much we use of it and how quickly we consume it. But this isn’t limited to data collected within an organisation, as vast volumes of data are being produced across the web and channelled into actionable insights by businesses around the world.
Research from Vanson Bourne revealed 64% of organisations that rely on alternative data sources when building business strategies say that alternative data has an impact on their investing strategy, and 59% say it affects their customer experience strategy.
Research from Forrester highlighted the impact of data where firms make fewer than 50% of their decisions based on quantitative data as opposed to gut feeling, experience, or opinion.
What is the purpose of web data collection?
Web data and its many alternative data subsets play a key role when it comes to the digital transformation process, making decisions, and improving business reasoning. How can web data collection enable enterprises to take digital transformation efforts to that next level;
Web data collection takes your brick-and-mortar business online
Although we are coming out the other side of a pandemic, the impact of consumers increasingly choosing to shop online is set to continue, and the chances of brick-and-mortar businesses ever returning to how they previously operated pre-pandemic are quite slim.
The rapid change towards a digitally inclusive world that we have experienced in the past two years, has propelled businesses into a brand-new type of market shaped by new rules, objectives, and standards. But, going completely online isn’t always a seamless process.
Companies must make sense of the public online data they have available so that they can acquire further insights into competitors, market movements, and consumer behaviour.
The collection of public web data has become the primary resource for high-performance decision-making, profit, and innovation, and it is critical to helping businesses digitise their processes and experiences since it helps firms to quickly adapt to new trends.
Integrating web data collection within your business strategy
Organisations competing within the emerging digital economy will need to make faster-paced, forward-looking decisions that are based on some form of logic or rationale.
Although information as an asset is still in its early stages, it has a competitive edge for forward-thinking organisations as they strive for digital transformation.
Gartner states that by this year 90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention data as a critical enterprise asset, and analytics as a necessary competency. Organisations that do not have such capabilities in place will be at a disadvantage to their competitors.
So, more data is always a better place to start when making decisions. Therefore integrating web data collection platforms and tools will become a primary need for businesses looking towards data to inform them on their decision making. It will be a primary resource when setting on a path towards digitisation of any services or updating business strategies.
Web data simplifies digital transformation
With over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated every day, this massive web-based databases can be problematic to many businesses without the right platforms or solutions to simplify it and ensure access to it. It’s no secret that data itself is complex.
It’s raw, unstructured, and abundant.
With so much data at our fingertips, it’s easy for organisations to become overwhelmed and start tapping into irrelevant data when looking to digitally transform operations. It’s therefore crucial to make sure that only the most relevant and reliable data is gathered to ensure informed and precise decision-making that allows businesses to grow and reach their goals.
The best way to decipher vast amounts of data is to decide the type of data required to achieve your business’s digital transformation objectives. There are several steps you can take to do this. Firstly, you need to re-define each customer’s journey and use that real-time data in your analysis. Then, you must focus on accessing quality data that you can trust.
The best approach for this is to start small and then scale up using forward-thinking automated tools. A retailer, for example, may look at the top-ten brand searches within a particular Australian region during a holiday to identify the next-best items to offer on sale.
Converting raw data into insights will enhance your decision-making. But, it is essential to remember that this is a step-by-step process that warrants forward-thinking technology.
While collecting web data will help businesses simplify their shift to a strategic digital focus, it’s no walk in the park for any company that has to deploy certain API technologies. An API-first platform is needed to automate data delivery, ensure seamless team collaboration, and eliminate manual tasks associated with databases, infrastructure, and security management.
It’s critical for firms to invest in a web data platform that can give them the data they need continuously. This means that firms are no longer reliant on guesswork to make decisions. They can on one source that will hold a mirror up to their true reality: the World Wide Web.
Tamir Roter is the Vice President EMEA & APAC at Bright Data
