Decision making; for many it is a thorn in the side of their work. Endless meetings, countless notes, and the bureaucratic spider web that has no limit. I’m sure it’s a familiar problem to many, but meetings could be a lot more efficient and decision-making a lot faster. One of the problems is often the lack of overview, which comes from data that is not organized..
By having your data structure in place, you can access the right data faster. This allows you trust the data in front of you and create accurate reports. This is an essential component for better and faster decision-making within your company. So when you want to make informed decisions, your data is a very important component. The way to get your data right? Integrated software.
Challenges of decision-making without integrations
The pace of decision-making is critical for many companies. Every day, choices must be made. How quickly you make these choices affects which opportunities you take advantage of, the time you waste and the costs you make. Taking too long to make your choices at worst also impacts your position in the market, certain industries are particularly prone to this.
Here is a statistic from McKinsey that reflects how managers feel about the decision-making process: 61% of managers feel that at least half of the time spent on decision-making is not spent effectively.
In addition, McKinsey has shown in the same report that when high-quality decisions are made with significant speed, it strongly influences how the organization performs. In doing so, it found that the likelihood of high quality decisions is 2x higher when companies act quickly.
The role of data
So it is advisable to do everything you can to increase the speed of your decisions, there are a number of ways to do this, but in this blog we will discuss the ways in which data matters.
The biggest challenges that lead to slow decision making are:
- Data silos: Different teams don’t have access to other teams’ data, or it takes enormous effort to gain access. When these different sources of data, such as CRMs and marketing automation, have no connection to each other, there is a high probability that you are working with different data that do not match. This can cause teams to be out of sync and long discussions to follow, this leads to slow decision making and this time could have been better spent.
- Inefficient operations: When there are no integrated sources or systems, different actions will also be repeated unnecessarily by different employees. If you have to process or enter data manually, and this data is also not synchronized with other systems, you are actually doing a lot of time-consuming work that can also be automated.
- Lack of insight: Without integrated tools, creating reports and analysis also becomes more difficult. When different teams come up with their reports, you’re likely to have differences between the two. This can lead to discussions about numbers, where the discussion would be more fruitful if it was about the implications of the numbers and the impact on the organization.
How does integration create faster/better decision making?
Data centralization
One of the greatest benefits of integrations is the ability to bring together data from different sources into one central system. In many organizations, data resides in different silos: CRM systems, ERPs, marketing tools, and more. This fragmentation makes it difficult to get a complete picture of a situation. Integrations connect these systems, bringing all relevant information together in one place. This creates a holistic view of your data, giving you a single source of truth within your organization.
Decision makers no longer have to switch between different tools or wait for reports from different departments. In addition, it is also important for employees to have access to all relevant information and documents so that they can also better prepare themselves. When everyone can reach all the relevant data, where no misunderstandings arise due to inconsistent data, the basis for fast decision-making has been laid.
Improved insights
Integrations make it possible to collect and analyze data faster, so that decisions are based on the most up-to-date information. The closer your insights are to real-time, the more they are worth in the business world. Imagine noticing a sudden surge in demand for a specific product. Integrated systems allow you to gain immediate insight into inventory levels, supplier performance and customer preferences. This allows you to quickly spot trends and respond to changing market conditions. Quick insights ensure that your business remains agile and can respond quickly to new opportunities or challenges.
Improved data quality
Integrations provide automatic synchronization of data between systems, significantly improving data quality. You no longer suffer from errors caused by manual entry, inconsistency and missing values. For example, when customer information is updated in the CRM, it is immediately reflected in other integrated systems, such as your marketing automation platform. This means that everyone in the organization is working with the same, accurate data, leading to more reliable insights and therefore better decisions.
Tangible benefits of better decision-making through integrations
Faster response times
With all relevant data at their fingertips, companies can react much faster to changes in the market or customer needs. Consider, for example, a situation where a competitor launches a new promotion. Thanks to integrated data, you can immediately see which products or services you can adjust to stay competitive. You can also respond faster to customer feedback by having instant insight into their interaction history and preferences. This agility ensures that you are not behind the times, but can act proactively to maintain or improve your market position. Thus, these quick response times also ensure that you can make decisions faster.
Strategic advantage
Integrations offer not only an operational advantage, but also a strategic one. By combining all data in one system, you can identify trends and patterns that would otherwise remain hidden. This allows you to perform in-depth analysis and make strategic decisions based on facts rather than assumptions. In doing so, you don’t have to guess or tug-of-war over which data are the right ones. For example, you can discover which products are often bought together and capitalize on that with bundle offers. Or you can gain insight into which customer segments are the most profitable and focus your marketing efforts there. This allows you to refine your strategy and better align it with what really works in the market.
Working more efficiently
Integrated systems provide automated data flows, minimizing manual processing and the associated risk of errors. Consider a sales team that can access customer data without having to manually enter it into different systems. This not only saves time, but also reduces the likelihood of errors that can occur due to duplication or incorrect entry. This allows employees to focus on what really matters: making data-driven decisions and responding to customer needs.
Improved competitiveness
A company that can make decisions quickly and accurately has a clear competitive advantage. By using integrated data to make better and faster decisions, you can spot and seize opportunities earlier than your competitors. Whether it’s introducing a new product faster, adjusting your pricing strategy, or personalizing customer interactions-having the right information at the right time makes all the difference. This not only leads to better business results, but also strengthens your brand’s position in the marketplace.
Make impact through integrations
Leveraging integrations goes beyond streamlining business processes; it’s about transforming the way decisions are made. That’s because with an integrated approach, you have access to insights that you can use immediately during your business operations and decision-making.
Take a critical look at your current software and the way they connect. What can be improved? Are there links needed between your systems? Are there data silos? Then look at the options for integrations, and then at what the needs are in your specific case. Also, think of it a bit like a snowball rolling down the mountain. It only has a small effect at first, but as the ball keeps rolling, you’ll find that all the integrations exchanging data with each other will have a bigger and bigger impact on decisions within your organization.
