“You spend 80% of your time finding the data you need rather than solving business problems” (DataFramed). At Blue Street Data, our mission is to increase the efficiency of buying and selling data. We aim to solve pain points within the market, transitioning to a buyer-focused approach. By understanding the buyer’s journey, balancing the supplier and buyer sides and facilitating transactions that encourage transparency, we can make the buying process easier. 

Five Factors for Achieving Analytical Maturity 

The first step needed to bring transparency to price, quality and choice is to achieve analytical maturity, or put forth a mechanism that allows more efficient analytical processes to take place. 

To achieve analytical maturity, there are five differentiating factors: 

1. The right leadership.

For strong data integration structures to take place, leadership needs to “be on board” when integrating data across organizational structures, standard operating procedures, and business processes. 

2. Flexible and dynamic IT architectures.

Developing an architecture that is designed to respond and react to changes will provide seamless coordination between the existing points of integration. 

3. The ability to achieve data mastery

If you can utilize data and analytics by having the discipline to ensure it is reliable, up to date, accessible and accurate, becoming analytically mature is much easier. 

4. Product thinking

Utilizing product thinking when applied to analytics will allow you to develop valuable solutions to user's problems. 

5. Culture of innovation

An innovative culture will allow you to develop a mindset centered around thinking of analytics like a product. With an innovative culture, achieving deep business engagement will result in being better equipped for long term, sustainable success. 

Comparing Data to Raw Material in Manufacturing 

 The second step needed to bring transparency to price, quality, and choice to utilize data as a raw material being input into a process, similarly to raw materials in a manufacturing process.  

 Manufacturing and procurement are proven processes- let's apply that thinking to data.   

As they would in a manufacturing process, better raw materials (external/internal data) will lead to better outcomes. Though input data must be cleaned, loaded, transformed and engineered, the output results provide endless opportunities. The output could be a predictive algorithm, or it could be a market study or an understanding of a use case or complexity. Whether it’s to deliver a product to a customer or an internal evaluation, there's an objective to everything that’s built using data. In relation to artificial intelligence, the inputs need to be constantly fed. The data must be innovated and experimented with to achieve satisfactory results.  

If we continue to compare the data utilization process to that of the manufacturing process, then it follows that with better outcomes we will be able to, for instance, achieve better performance, accomplish optimized customer understanding, or enhance a manufacturing store layout.  

BSD’s Process for Maintaining Analytical Maturity 

Blue Street Data has outlined a process to ensure that transparency related to price, quality and choice are evident. Now that your company has achieved analytical maturity, ensuring that maturity is maintained is imperative. Blue Street Data defined primary areas of focus when purchasing data.  

• Defining Needs 
• Finding Diversified Suppliers 
• Evaluating Quality  
• Comparing Quality 
• Plug Raw Materials into the Correct Manufacturing Process 

Focus on Transparency in Quality and Pricing 

Blue Street Data is focused on bringing transparency to evaluating quality and comparing prices (Step 3 & 4). When assessing data quality and pricing, it is important to analyze comparability and accessibility of data sets. In essence, looking at multiple choices and understanding those choices in the context of the business decisions being made. Having numerous options will result in a more tailored ability to achieve what you want with your business.  

In essence, this is the reasoning behind Blue Street Data’s buyer focused approach. The understanding of quality and pricing ties into the definition behind valuable data. When organizations create the right process internally, that makes it easier for suppliers to serve the needs of the buyers.