How to Enable Data-Driven Decisions by Integrating Your Apps

How big is your company’s database? From the moment someone takes an interest in your product or service and long after you buy it, you collect data – and it can multiply quickly.

Thanks to cloud-based platforms, even small businesses have access to a multitude of tools to collect huge amounts of information. But it’s easy to fall into a “more is better” trap when the quality of your data really matters.

Because collecting large amounts of information is less of a challenge than the efficient management of data and its quality. Then, and only then, can business owners make data-driven decisions such as:

• Adjust your business to meet consumer demand
• Deliver the best customer experiences
• Introduce new products
• Personalize marketing content
• Scale effectively
• Channel your budget

Let’s look at the two biggest barriers to data management and how technology can help you overcome them so you can make data-driven decisions.

Data management obstacles

1. Overwhelming amount of data from various sources

According to the Blissfully 2020 report, the average small business uses 102 different apps and a midsize business uses an average of 137 apps.

Your marketing team needs at least one lead generation, email marketing, and automation tool. Meanwhile, your sales team is using a CRM and your accounting team is managing your finances with different software. Then there are apps for smooth business processes such as GSuite or Outlook, your e-commerce shop, survey platforms and VoIP.

All of these applications contain relevant customer and lead data from interactions with leads, prospects or customers in different phases of their journey.

When choosing applications for your SaaS stack, you can opt for an all-in-one solution to reduce complexity and connect different data sources to provide a larger range of customer data. For example, marketing automation software can take over your lead generation, capture, evaluation and maintenance throughout the entire customer journey.

There are integrated systems or hubs for other areas of your company such as sales, finance or e-commerce. But as your business grows, you will likely use more tools to add functionality and handle additional customer touchpoints.

These tools have their own way of storing data, and the problem is that most of them don’t actually “talk” to each other. The lack of communication between apps creates a major data management challenge for companies of all sizes: data silos.

2. Data silos

Cloud software has made a lot of things easier for companies: You can work anywhere, stay up to date on any device and do not have to rely on hardware updates. But even if you use cloud-based applications across your enterprise, most of them are not natively integrated.

This isolates small fragments of customer data within these applications. When that happens, you have a problem with data silos.

Data silos can be kryptonite for companies. They make it impossible to have a 360-degree view of your customers when your data is isolated. With each of your teams looking at their own subset of data, decisions are seldom coordinated and definitely not driven by the data that matters to everyone.

Even with good communication between teams, the exchange of quality data has its structural challenges. Many sales teams inadvertently spend time with leads that their marketing colleagues have already identified as cold.

When native integrations aren’t available, the best way to have the right data in the right tools is through third-party integration services.

For example, using an integration solution can help you align different departments in your company by having:

1. The right marketing leads and their qualification data in CRM
2. The right customer attributes captured by a CRM available in a marketing tool

Integrated data is essential for data-driven decisions

Collecting huge amounts of data is no longer the problem. Today’s challenge is to manage data efficiency and avoid silos.

Integrated systems and synchronization solutions enable you to have the right information available at the right time in the right tool. Then, and only then, will you have a clear and complete view of your customers. This allows you to use data to show you the best way forward, rather than making decisions based on gut feeling or experience alone.

In addition, data synchronization brings your teams closer together and aligns their perspective with the customer. When your tools “talk to each other”, something very valuable for all companies can also be used: time.