How outsourcing your data team can transform your business strategy
In 2002, Computer Weekly published an article titled ‘ Time to outsource data storage’ yet nearly 20 years on, organisations are still slow in succumbing to the digital revolution, to their own demise.
We’re asking the question - Is it best to outsource your data team vs buying them in? The answer is yes, here’s why.
Lumilinks are illuminating business insights for organisations by providing data as a service. By making a fully integrated team of highly skilled data scientists and analysts available to organizations, we’re enabling businesses to save hundreds of thousands of pounds per year on recruitment costs, training, tech, and salaries. All whilst providing a best-of-breed analytics service.
A whopping 70% of analysts’ time is spent sorting through data, facing obstacles around accessing information, never mind making sense of it.
Our team of highly skilled engineers, data scientists, analysts, and statisticians are partnering with our clients to shine a light on the wealth of information that’s available, but often not easily accessible to organisations. We’re building bespoke data warehouses which consolidate all of your organisation’s data sources into one single source of truth.
Wait, what is a data warehouse?
Think of a Data Warehouse as a daily newspaper that has been vigorously fact-checked and designed to answer all of the questions its audience (your organisation) may ask. It will provide you with up-to-date information on all of the key events from the previous day.
A data warehouse allows users to extract both internal and external information at low computational costs, while facilitating a shift away from what is typically seen as a siloed view of data. By using a warehouse we can ensure that data is easily queried, digestible, and useful to business users, whatever their skill set.
Taken together, there are three main components of data warehousing:
A data integration layer that extracts data from operational systems, such as ERP, CRM, or financial applications.
A data staging area where data is cleansed and organized.
A presentation area where data is warehoused and made available for use.
It's true that organisations have a vested interest in data warehousing; yet many organizations are constrained by the high costs associated with data warehouse development. Not to mention the scarcity of complex skills required. We’re lowering the barriers around skills and costs by providing analytics as a service.
How Data Warehousing can benefit your business
Instantly tap into a gold-mine of expertise - Outsourcing means you can pull on the levers of various experts across the industry from analysts, to compliance specialists, to data engineers to statisticians, providing access to a fully integrated team of specialists.
Create data assets by outsourcing a CDO
While the role of Chief Data Officer is still in its infancy, its mission has shifted from risk mitigation to creating business value with data assets.
Gartner predicts that by 2022, 90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset, and analytics as an essential competency. By 2023 we will see data literacy become an explicit and necessary driver of business value, and will be formally included in over 80% of data and analytics strategies and change management programs.
For some enterprises, data and analytics have become a primary driver of their business strategy allowing organisations to ask questions like:
“With this data, or this type of insight, how could we fundamentally change the value propositions for our customers?” and “How can we deliver new value propositions?”
Enjoy the financial freedom of scalability and flexibility - Outsourcing your data team allows you to expand and contract in areas of analytics as necessary, with access to full-time engineers while building your data infrastructure and the option to scale back once projects are complete. This flexible solution will suit any enterprise, regardless of its size, with various pricing models also allowing you to tailor computing and storage resources to your organization's current needs.
Sing from the same hymn sheet - Companies can unify all company data across multi-cloud and on-premises repositories in real-time, allowing business users to share analytics and reports with a select group of viewers within the company. By enriching your existing data with external sources and creating a data warehouse managed, we can build visual dashboards, allowing you to deliver data in a digestible way in the boardroom.
Reap the benefits of real-time analytics - Users can create complex data models and visualize key metrics to uncover hidden connections and correlations between variables. Using built-in machine learning & AI users can gain deeper insights into data models and tools, such as BI software can enable users to access the data within the warehouse.
Outsourcing in financial shared services
Lumilinks are enabling organisations in financial shared services to transform legacy processes like simple excel spreadsheet reporting to automated financial reporting, at the click of a button. We’re illuminating key financial data, insights, and trends along the way, enabling your business to perform better.
We connect to your data (via pre-built data connectors) allowing you to deliver on key KPI’s and make real-time decisions. Our analysts uncover key trends, patterns, and insights as well as create dynamic reports and dashboards used to drive strategic decision-making, allowing for true performance transparency across your organization.
Outsourcing enables seamless and cost-effective business transformation, not to mention the opportunity you have to tap into the minds of data experts, without the need to hire.
Compliance
Now for the not-so-exciting stuff! We work to ensure the regulation and compliance of laws across the entire financial spectrum by taking the following steps, and more:
We create an implementation program or plan for GDPR compliance or auditing your existing plan to make sure it’s fit for purpose and conducting a data audit so you know how the information you hold is held and used.
By producing a Record of Processing Activity (ROPA) if you are a large organisation or are processing high-risk data.
We carry out Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) and act as your Data Protection Officer (DPO) if you need one.
By reviewing your contracts with third-party suppliers to ensure that you and they understand your liabilities, and assist you with advice about international data transfers.
We also update your internal processes around data breaches to ensure they comply with your regulatory requirements.
So, if you still wonder - is it best to outsource your data team vs buying them in? Well, if you are looking to revolutionize the way you use your data, without a colossal undertaking, then the answer is yes.
Contact us today to find out more…