Nowadays, data analytics in the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) industry is not just a byproduct of operations but a cornerstone for strategic decision-making. While many discuss the theoretical potential of data, few address the critical gap between theory and practical application. Leveraging data effectively can drive performance, foster innovation, and enhance customer experience.
ICT companies generate vast amounts of data daily, including sales, revenue and other financial components, as well as supply chain, project delivery, product performance, customer usage, service quality, and customer experience data. The challenge lies not only in the volume of data but in capturing, analyzing, and interpreting it effectively. Robust data storage and management solutions are essential for efficiently managing all of this.
Driving Performance with Data Analytics in ICT
Data analytics in the ICT industry can mean improvements in operational efficiency. By monitoring the right metrics, ICT companies can identify areas of improvement, optimize resource allocation, and streamline processes. For example, analyzing procurement data can determine whether to develop certain capabilities internally or outsource them. This analysis can inform strategic decisions on partnerships, negotiations, and resource allocation, ensuring actions are grounded in real-world insights.
Data can drive innovation by revealing client needs and market trends. ICT companies can tailor their services to meet evolving demands by identifying market gaps and opportunities for new products or enhancements. Continuous analysis of trends and user feedback ensures offerings remain relevant and competitive, addressing unmet needs and keeping pace with technological advancements.
In the competitive ICT market, customer experience is a key differentiator. Data-driven insights allow companies to personalize interactions, anticipate issues, and provide timely solutions. For instance, by combining technology adoption metrics with customer feedback and usage patterns, companies can understand why products are underused and make necessary adjustments. This approach enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty by addressing real-time needs and preferences.
A real-world example of data-driven decision-making is demonstrated by a company closely known to the author, which aimed to improve its win ratio for government bids. For confidentiality reasons, the company’s name will not be disclosed. The company embarked on a data-driven initiative, utilizing historical bid data, competitor analysis, and publicly available data from the official government bidding platform, leveraging robotic process automation (RPA).
The data analysis revealed patterns in winning bids and identified the average variance between the company’s bid prices and the next closest bidders. This analysis informed strategic decisions to revamp bid pricing strategy, tailor proposals to government needs, and reduce the bid price gap with competitors. The company also implemented various initiatives related to cost restructuring and improving partnership terms.
As a result, the company saw a significant improvement in its win ratio, increased revenue from government contracts, and better alignment with market expectations. This data-driven approach established a reputation for quality bids, built stronger relationships with government clients, and supported the company’s growth and strategic goals.
Investing in data analytics capabilities proved highly beneficial, leading to better processing of government bids, more informed decision-making, and reduced manual work. This experience was pivotal in revamping the company’s approach to challenges and increasing data utilization in various decisions.
A significant challenge in implementing data-driven strategies is the lack of a defined data catalog and metadata. Establishing clear data practices is essential for building a reliable foundation. Proper data management ensures privacy and security while enabling effective decision-making. These practices provide a framework for overcoming barriers and applying data-driven strategies practically.
However, creating a data-driven culture requires more than just tools; it demands a mindset shift. This involves building trust in data through proper management practices, empowering teams with data interpretation skills, fostering collaboration, and aligning goals with data-driven initiatives. Starting with a small, credible data set and expanding organization-wide can effectively turn theoretical concepts into practical applications.
The ICT industry is experiencing significant changes. Embracing data-driven decision-making, investing in data architecture, and adopting clear data practices can unlock new potentials, enhance client experiences, and improve efficiency. Failing to do so may result in inefficiencies and a loss of competitive edge. As competition intensifies, leveraging data effectively turns challenges into opportunities.
Deepen your understanding of using data for better decision-making and other aspects of business with our insightful articles on data analytics.
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About the Author
This article is written by Yazeed Almomen, a Corporate Planning & Performance Manager at one of the leading ICT companies in Saudi Arabia. With over six years of dedicated experience in the corporate planning and performance field across both private and public sectors, he has led numerous performance transformation projects and is passionate about building sustainable planning and performance management practices. He has a keen interest in leveraging data-driven decision-making to enhance corporate performance and foster innovation.
Technology shapes patterns of human activity in every aspect of life. Undoubtedly, the transformative impact of digital technology requires individuals, businesses, and organizations to constantly adapt to new systems and applications to use them effectively and mitigate risks related to techno-stress creators.
Digital Technologies in the Professional Environment
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are essential to the workplace. Organizations are dependent on digital technology. Work-related use of ICTs offers a myriad of benefits to organizations, provides organizations with opportunities to optimize business processes, improves efficiency and productivity, reduces costs, shapes the patterns of information processing and innovation patterns, and assists a wide range of online services.
Moreover, work-related usage of ICTs can positively impact job performance and virtual team effectiveness. ICTs provide continuous connectivity. Colleagues can easily communicate without restraints of location and time. In parallel with the advances in ICTs, telecommuting has become increasingly prevalent around the world. Consequently, not having to commute has reduced the costs and time spent in traveling.
The impact of digital technology in professional environments on work practices and habits manifests in work performance, how employees connect, and how they think and act. Despite numerous advantages created by the effective use of ICTs, there can also be challenges and negative outcomes. The human brain’s cognitive performance and attentional behaviors are affected by being exposed to information technologies.
Challenges
ICT-induced challenges in professional environments are referred to as techno-stressors. Being constantly available and techno-overload can cause techno-stress, and they are usually associated with the work-related use of ICTs.
Advances in ICTs allow for constant connectivity and work independent of time and location. In this context, employees may find separating work and non-work life difficult. Techno-invasion due to work-related ICTs after working hours makes employees vulnerable elevated levels of work stress, diminished work performance, and life invasion. Additionally, always-on work culture and constant connectivity make employees feel forced to be available and easily reached via e-mail, the Internet, or mobile devices. Consequently, employees tend to work longer due to ICTS-induced expectations for faster response and dealing with multiple tasks simultaneously.
Techno-overload occurs when employees get occupied with too many different tasks simultaneously or are constantly interrupted by ICT applications. As a result, they may feel obliged to work faster and more due to increasing demands and expectations.
The impact of digital technology on attentional behaviors steams from its design. Through the multi-windows design, users can navigate through several folders, documents, programs, and browser tabs that are simultaneously open. This multi-windows design translates into switching attention between multiple activities in a short period. In other words, technology-induced multitasking results in attentional switching.
Similarly, due to mobile devices and collaborative workspace chat and videoconferencing applications, employees face a multitude of interruptions and streams of real-time information that may foster information overload and fragmentation of attention, making maintaining attention on the task at hand difficult.
The main problems associated with techno-stressors include leading to attentional and cognitive deficits, provoking anxiety, fatigue, and low performance.
Virtual Meeting Fatigue
As a new popular term, Zoom fatigue has become widely used to describe emotional, psychological, and physical lack of energy resulting from spending too much time in front of screens while video conferencing. Video conferencing fatigue appears to be the new form of techno-stress underlining challenges in adaptation to modern technologies due to overutilization of technology and lack of healthy coping strategies with techno stressors and ICT-induced demands.
There is a set of factors contributing to Zoom fatigue: video conferencing involves different ways of communication with prolonged eye contact, limited non-verbal cues and body gestures, and difficulty in focusing during discussions, and additional cognitive load. Moreover, asynchronicity of communication is listed among contributing factors that lead to increased cognitive efforts, frustration, and stress.
Although advances in ICTs provide organizations with instruments to increase productivity by saving time and energy, studies suggest that overuse of ICTs results in more than 25% of the general working population suffering from fatigue and emotional exhaustion.
Techno-stress leads to lower work performance and productivity, reduced job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. To mitigate such undesired consequences, businesses search for solutions to ease techno-stress. An increasing number of organizations recognize that employee well-being is crucial to high performance and thus integrate well-being initiatives into their work.
Finite Resources
People’s time and attention are finite resources. ICTs can increase productivity in the short term. However, such gains can be undermined by increased cognitive load and lower productivity, performance, and well-being in the long term.
At an individual level, some of the strategies that can be applied to mitigate the overwhelming side effects of excessive ICT use are practicing strategic attention n order to reduce loss of time and the fragmentation of attention; prioritizing urgent communications and postponing less relevant communications; and utilizing applications to organize information storage and block distractions.
Finally, individual employees should ensure that they get adequate rest to counter ongoing psychical and emotional exhaustion. Techno-stressors, along with long virtual meetings, can trigger sensory overload. Sensory rest, taking mindful moments of sensory deprivation, can also be helpful.
