To say, the COVID-19 pandemic was hard on businesses is an understatement.
The pandemic has hastened digital change, putting the value of data at the top of boardroom agendas throughout all sectors and businesses.
This was the first global health crisis where we relied on technology to help us get through it. The global lockdown also proved to be a stunning showcase of how resilient these cloud-based services are. From entire cities relying on Amazon's highly organized supply chain system to billions tuning in streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube. In just months, entire business operations moved to Zoom, Google Workspace, and other cloud-based platforms.
Being Data-Driven Is Not Just a Trend
As monumental as being data-driven has been in fighting this global health crisis, we think it's not just a business response, but rather a shift in how businesses, especially SMBs operate because of five fundamental reasons.
1. Driving incredible insight
Being data-driven proved to be crucial in a company's ability to anticipate future events, make better decisions, and cut its losses. Those with the ability to digest data fast and apply the data strategy required for this analysis and processing are in high demand.
2. Planning for sustainability
Businesses in the private sector are expected to improve their data approach to develop projections that will help them better adapt to potential disruptive occurrences. Companies may make strategies for business sustainability now that these potential dangers are known.
3. Cost-effective
Utilizing data to drive company decisions is no longer a costly affair. Technology proliferation has come to a point where SMBs have access to the same data centers and computing power that multibillion conglomerates do - but at a fraction of a price.
Most data platforms today offer pay-per-use pricing and enable SMBs to move their workloads to the same secure cloud that the biggest companies on the planet are using.
4. Abundance of Data
The upside for small and medium-sized businesses is that data is more accessible to mine today than ever before, thanks to increased screen time owing to lockdowns and restrictions, as well as increasing computer dependence in general.
Gathering consumer data is no longer is no longer a chore. With cloud-based data platforms like Cognera, SMBs can simply point to a data source and begin analyzing data for their own business.
5. Emergence of Cloud Data Platforms
One of the biggest barriers in the way of SMBs becoming permanently data-driven is not having the fundamental processes in place to comprehend this tremendous flood of customer data. Thankfully, with the emergence of cloud-based data platforms, SMBs no longer need to worry about existing IT infrastructure or lack of IT personnel. With zero code solutions like Cognera, businesses can start driving insights from data in minutes.
Wrapping up…
It is crystal clear that the post-pandemic recovery for SMBs is data-driven. Data is being utilized to develop the right corporate strategies and to drive relevant consumer experiences and revenue. The widespread adoption we're witnessing is a guarantee that the world has already embraced the new "data-driven" approach.
Leverage the early-mover advantage by adopting a cloud-based data platform like Cognera for your business. Test our value before you pay - try Cognera for free today.
