12 Types Of Data IT Can’t Afford To Overlook

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Regardless of how much data your company has -- and how much your business leaders are asking for -- you're likely missing some hidden gems. Here are 12 examples of what you might be overlooking, and why it matters to IT professionals, and to your business at large.

Your organization probably already has more data than it knows what to do with. Yet, it's quite likely you're overlooking, disregarding, unaware of, or unable to access important information which could directly affect analyses and business outcomes.

It doesn't matter what your universe of data is – enterprise data or a combination of internal and external data sources – important nuggets of information may be missing.

"Companies are collecting more data, but often struggle with what to do with it," said Dave Hartman, president and founder of technology advisory firm Hartman Executive Advisors. "Data can be extremely overwhelming in its raw form."

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Data silos are one culprit causing blind spots, which result in missed opportunities and can expose your company to risk. Today's companies need cross-functional views of their data in order to serve customers and to compete effectively.

"The untapped gems lie in the cross-links between data sources that relate to customers across channels and derive future value. This includes creating consistent and comprehensive customer profiles across the board," said Dominik Dahlem, lead data scientist at customer intelligence cloud platform vendor Boxever.

Achieving that kind of visibility isn't easy, as it requires organizations to tie together enterprise systems, which can be difficult to do despite the number of APIs available. Businesses also have to consider external data sources, such as social media or weather data, which help provide a complete view of customer behavior or serve to identify overlooked issues which might negatively affect business performance.