In Conversation: Data as Currency - Providing Accessibility and Transparency Across Your Entire Organization

Most organizations view data as an asset, others view data as a liability or an expense. Head of Innovation at Avtex, David Murashige and Innovation Principal Solutions Architect, Jeremy Winchell view data as currency and discuss how it has the power to move the needle in big ways when it is accessible and transparent across your entire organization.

Dave: I have some perspectives of my own about the business value of data and the way it should be leveraged in an organization, but Jeremy, you really live and breathe analytics day in and day out. You’re the brains behind Insights for Genesys Cloud and a true master of your craft.

Jeremy: Thanks, Dave. Data is a foundational element of any business strategy, so this is an extremely important topic.

Dave: Agreed. When it comes to data, there are two fundamental challenges that our clients are often facing. First, there’s the foundational, operational problem. Is my organization efficient? Do we understand what’s happening? What’s going wrong that we should be addressing?

Then there’s a set of strategic problems and questions that are a little more complex. How am I performing relative to my peers? What are the differentiating characteristics that I need to leverage and promote so that I stand out from my peers? And to what extent is my customer experience part of that differentiation? Where can I improve?

Jeremy: Yeah, you really hit the nail on the head. There’s the operational side and strategic side of analytics. I would also add that most organizations face challenges around data accessibility and transparency. So many organizations operate in silos, both as a whole, and in terms of how they extract, view, and analyze data. In fact, according to a report from Harvard Business Review, organizational silos are the top barrier for organizations that are working toward transforming into data-driven intelligent enterprises. If your organization can provide data accessibility and transparency, you’ll be able to make large strides toward eliminating those silos.

In another independent market research study we conducted with Microsoft, companies were asked how they think their data maturity levels stack up against their competitors. Most of the respondents assumed they were behind their competitors, but in reality, everyone was sitting at essentially the same level of data maturity. Most were confident they would achieve their data driven goals in the next few years.

Dave: Right, I think most organizations recognize they have work to do when it comes to their data and analytics strategy. How can they level up?

Jeremy: It’s about going from descriptive analytics to predictive and prescriptive analytics. So, most organizations will have some level of descriptive analytics, meaning they are able to see what happened yesterday, last week, or last month. Leveling up means being able to predict what’s going to happen tomorrow, or in the next month. Once you are able to predict what’s coming, you can start to apply a more prescriptive strategy where you can recommend actions and start to drive actual business outcomes.

Jeremy: Leaders in customer experience are prescriptive with their analytics strategy. They use data to inform each and every interaction with their customers. Data in and of itself is unique because it’s an asset, a liability, and an expense. No matter how you look at it, data moves the needle in a ton of different ways, and that’s because it’s a true differentiator.

Dave: Agreed, in some ways you can think of data as currency. It’s as valuable as dollars in some ways. As you mentioned it’s a liability, and it’s an asset. It has strategic potential, but it also has risk if you don’t use it well.

Additionally, data has different levels of value. Some data is more valuable than other data, and so much of it exists in organizational silos. Breaking down those silos is such an important step because it allows organizations to view their entire portfolio of data and start gleaning insights from it.

When I think about data as currency and I think about the different levels of data, I think about different accounts that have different currencies in them. It makes it very hard to understand the value of what you have. Let’s say you have Singapore dollars in one account, Indian rupees in another, U.S. dollars in another, and Brazilian pesos in another. The account totals might be 36,000 in one account, or 100,000 in another account, but you can't really tell what your total value is because the currencies are different. And until you put it all together, and manage the data against each other, you won’t be able to get the value of the total portfolio of data you have.

Jeremy: The other challenge is that obviously different people throughout an organization require different levels of visibility to different data points. Frontline managers will look at data that helps them manage their team, individuals, and the people side of data. Whereas upper management and leaders will look at long term business goals and highly summarized information.

Dave: Right, yeah it goes back to operational versus strategic needs for data. So, you’ve got different people needing different information, and of course, data needs and KPI definitions will vary company to company. Jeremy, we’ve helped a lot of clients with data projects, are you able to share any recent use cases or wins?

Jeremy: One recent use case that comes to mind is the work we did with a large distributor of plumbing supplies to help them gain control of their data within Genesys Cloud. As part of their longer-term data strategy, they wanted to get all the great data available in Genesys Cloud out into their own data warehouse. We helped them solve both the accessibility and transparency problems we’ve been talking about by implementing Insights for Genesys Cloud.

In a matter of days, we were able to deploy an accessible solution allowing them to connect to Genesys Cloud and start pulling that data into their warehouse to build out the rest of their data landscape. After the initial deployment, we were able to spend a couple of days tweaking our templates and our solution to fit their data model.

This particular supplier has thousands of branch offices and more than 4000 agents so being able to provide consistency and transparency around the reports and KPI measurement has been a game changer for them. Before we deployed Insights for Genesys Cloud, their team was going to multiple sources trying to get access to information on survey scores, call data, or agent performance. Now they’ve retrained their internal stakeholders to view the reports in Power BI. So, they’re no longer emailing spreadsheets around or viewing multiple versions of a report.

It’s been great being able to work with them because they are so dedicated to building out a strong data strategy. So, as they move the needle forward for their organization, they are pushing us to expand our data practice at Avtex as well.

Dave: That is fantastic. And of course, Avtex Insights can drive extraordinary business outcomes with companies of any size – not just big suppliers.

Jeremy: Absolutely. If you look at some of our smaller customers, for example, in the credit union space, they don’t always have a dedicated IT team or developers that can help them. So, Insights for Genesys Cloud has provided quick in-roads to understanding how their contact center is performing, how agents are performing, and how they can provide better member experiences. We can provide these smaller organizations access to a free trial of Insights, have them up and running in a matter of days, and get them the accessible and transparent data they need.

Dave: Thanks for joining me for this conversation, Jeremy. I’m proud of the outcomes Avtex is driving for our clients with our robust data and analytics services and technology solutions like Insights for Genesys Cloud.