How to Become a Data-Driven Company

Welcome back to another edition of the Trellis video series featuring our fearless CEO Isaiah Bollinger. Today he shares his insight into a part of what makes Trellis such a fast-growing and successful tech company. Here at Trellis, we pay extreme attention to detail and a lot of the details can be found in data. Data analysis is an extremely important tool for any company in this day and age. Companies that incorporate data into their strategic decision making will gain more insight and opportunity to make the right decisions than those that ignore the same statistics. Today’s world demands companies to be data-driven or they will not be able to scale long term. Follow these three simple steps to use data to optimize your business and achieve accelerated growth over time.

Define your KPIs

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator and they are the metrics you consider most important to define the success of your business. By setting your KPIs, you are able to focus on certain data sets and information that is most critical to the advancement of your company. Focusing on these metrics will allow you to achieve better and more defined results. The specific KPIs will vary firm to firm but are the key pinpoints to keep in the back of your head when making all business decisions.

Here at Trellis, our main KPI is the utilization rate amongst our developers. Over time Trellis has evolved into a full-service digital agency offering design, marketing, SEO and hosting but we remain a development company at heart. Our developers are our most valuable resource at Trellis. They are what allow a project to be completed on time and under budget but only if their utilization rates are in order. Developers must maintain the desired ratio between billable and non-billable hours to control revenue consistency. Ensuring that each team member is kept on task and logging billable hours for client work is critical from a profitability standpoint. Understanding the driving force behind your revenue streams allows your decision making to be logical and data-driven allowing for a better brand strategy. Our executive team stresses the importance of utilization rates constantly in order to keep everyone on the same page and functioning as they should.

Actually Use the Data

Many business leaders swear by trusting your gut when it comes to decision making. This may work at times, however, in this data-driven world, there is a better way. Making informed decisions with data to back up your initiatives will create better results for your business. Analyzing the reports and sifting through data feedback will allow for higher levels of insight into your business processes. You will be able to find out what is working and what is not. You may even find a bottleneck and an accompanying solution unlocking untapped dollars. Data’s potential for businesses is limitless so do not overlook this resource any longer. The right decision is an informed decision. You may rely on your instincts at times, but more often than not you should lean on hard cold data to help in your strategic thinking.

Hire a Dedicated Data Analyst

Data is easy to find but hard to understand. Knowing your KPIs is not enough, you must be able to interpret the data and optimize the processes thereafter. This is no easy task so firms should hire a dedicated employee to oversee their data analysis Having a driving internal force to focus on the data will give the business higher levels of insight as they spend more time managing the dashboard and assessing the results. This critical role usually falls under operations management. Mastering the data flow can be tricky at first and takes some time to understand all of the metrics. Prioritizing data is a must for any modern company and hiring a dedicated data analyst will result in faster and more effective outcomes for your business.