The Importance of Data Gathering in Strategic Planning

Written by Kartika Putro on November 5, 2021. Posted in Articles, Strategy

Some say when you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. This is the reason why you should establish a solid strategic planning process for your company. But strategic planning won’t succeed without the right data. Data gathering may sound simple, but you should not underestimate it. Why does it matter and how should you gather your company’s performance data?

Performance monitoring is a systematic process taken by the management in order to track the company’s performance and drive results and continuous growth. Performance monitoring could also send signals to top management which part of their business operations are failing or working below expectancy. This process plays an important part in the strategic planning initiative.

In order to successfully monitor company performance, the management should be able to gather corporate performance data swimmingly.

Data Gathering

Data gathering in general should start with KPI activation. This KPI activation consists of four different steps: meeting with the data custodians, securing the activation budget, designing the data gathering template, and communicating the template to the data custodians. KPI activation is a step that allows management to develop infrastructure for capturing and managing data.

After KPI activation is done, the next step is the ongoing data gathering process. This is where the management or the performance management team sends the KPI data gathering notification to the KPI custodians and receives the data relevant to performance monitoring. For this step, it is imperative for the performance management team to gathers and centralize the relevant data before checking the data quality.

After sending the KPI data gathering notification, the management or the performance management team could also send the KPI custodians a reminder via email to make sure the data custodians prepare the data needed.

Once the relevant data is gathered, the performance team should check the quality of the data before calculating the KPI results and analyzing the data. The quality of the data should be checked based on multiple dimensions. The main dimensions are Accuracy, Completeness, Consistency, Conformity, Timeliness, and Uniqueness. In reality, the performance management team may find the relevant data does not meet those requirements/quality. When the data does not meet a certain quality, it is preferred for the top management or the performance management team to clarify the data to the data custodians.

Data analysis is a set of processes of examining, transforming, and modeling data to generate relevant business insights that can be used in the decision-making process. In analyzing KPI results, the performance team should use analytics.

The final step of data gathering is to generate a performance report. In this phase, data custodians, the report generator, and the strategy performance team are collectively responsible for compiling all performance results, business insights, and analysis in a certain format for the decision-makers.

In conclusion, a solid data gathering enables decision-makers to set the right company’s objectives for the next period. A solid data-gathering process will help the performance management team provide the performance report required by the top management faster, making the top management adjust the company’s strategy and objectives properly. If you want to learn more about how you could establish a solid data gathering process, sign up for The KPI Institute’s Certified KPI Professional and Practitioner course.

How Can You Improve the Data Gathering Process for Your KPIs?

Written by Cristina Mihăiloaie on June 25, 2019. Posted in Articles, KPI

An important component of performance measurement is represented by the data collection capability.

However, when applied in the organizational context, this process is neither easy, nor lacking obstacles, as practitioners often discover.

Some of the most common challenges encountered by organizations are related to three main themes, namely:

As the decision-making process is significantly influenced by the performance data provided in monthly reports, providing unreliable information might seriously damage your business, by influencing you towards making the wrong decisions.

The following recommendations are meant to assist professionals in their efforts to optimize the data gathering process.

Assign Data Custodians

Identify those employees who will become responsible for gathering data. The profile of a data custodian should include experience in measuring, reporting metrics/KPIs, skills to work with technology (it can be business intelligence tools or Microsoft Excel), knowledge in regard to the assessed processes, the sense of integrity and ethics.

Some companies may hire specialized professionals, such as data analysts, while other organizations might choose to assign the data custodian roles to existing employees.

Develop a Data Gathering Process Map

A flow chart will provide data custodians with more visibility regarding the data collection steps, as well as with the clear deadlines that need to be respected.

Provide Guidelines Through the KPI Documentation Form

This document will ensure consistency in measuring each KPI, by presenting details such as KPI definitions, calculation formulas, data sources and measurement limitations.

A well-documented KPI library will significantly influence the quality of the KPI measurement.

Train Data Custodians

For many companies, hiring a specialist, such as a data analyst, may not be an option and they have to rely on existing resources. In this context, it is highly important for people to be trained on this matter.

Developing this internal capability can be done through several initiatives, from formal training events to internal learning and sharing.

A Community of Practice for data custodians can be established, where different challenges are discussed and solutions are identified. Participants can exchange experiences and come up with initiatives to improve the current data gathering process.

Conduct an Internal Audit

From time to time, auditing the data gathering process leads to improvements by identifying critical issues that may be altering the quality of the data produced.

Build a Modern Infrastructure

Use technology in order to ensure an efficient data gathering. Having automated processes improves both the accuracy of data and its availability in due time.

By having these six tips in mind when collecting data for KPIs, managers can streamline the data gathering process and provide reliable data for decision making.

For professionals looking to strengthen their data gathering, analysis, and KPI measurement capabilities, The KPI Institute offers the Certified Data Analysis Professional and Certified KPI Professional courses, providing practical knowledge and tools to improve the quality of performance data and support more informed decision-making.

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