Data at the Centre of Smashed Avocados Toasts

Millennials, bloggers, social media enthusiasts, arm-chair critics and even media houses are trying to find the number of avo on toast that one needs to forgo to buy a sea-facing property at Bondi Beach or that cute terrace in Surry Hills. We even have #Avogate calculators. That’s what data can do — unveil insights.

But what is the purpose of these insights? The motivation behind collecting data is the story that it reveals. This brings people together under the bigger picture — smashed avocados and the possibility of millennials to have affordable housing. When we can see the whole story within data, we are armed with useful insights to execute data-driven actions.

Data-driven action has the benefits of being more precise and effective. When decisions are made with the whole story available, people can allocate resources according to precise needs. Considering organisations thrive or fail depending on the right decisions, this is especially critical to businesses.

Data should not be siloed

Data analytics has the potential to bring people together and empower them throughout the organisation. Data should not be siloed. It should be distributed across the firm in a governed manner so that each employee can make data-driven decisions across every level of the business. When this data is accurately integrated in one single platform, it allows you to see the whole story within your processes. However, in order to truly understand and explore all data-driven possibilities, it is crucial to connect people, ideas and data.

Visualisation to explain data

Data has potential for audience reach by the forms it may be represented. For example, data brought to life through visualisation allows users to understand statistics intuitively. This highlights the same valuable insights but conveys them more effectively via images.

Providing everyday users access to visual analytics enables them to easily integrate and visualise data points from disparate sources, empowering them to make data-driven decisions. Horizon Power, a government-owned electricity company, recently spoke about how visual analytics has streamlined the efficiency of reporting. With data analytics being decentralised across the company, reports can be created in real-time as data digitisation that once took weeks to complete now only takes hours.

The big data and business analytics (BDA) market is predicted to hit US$203 billion in the year 2020, up from US$130.1 billion in 2016, according to research firm IDC[1]. Data analytics is the new frontier of business intelligence and the impact can be felt across sectors.

What matters is how data analytics helps all of us to see the whole story and the actual truth in our data to drive higher productivity, better and faster decision making, and empower people and companies alike. You would still have some folks bringing up the smashed avocados investment index. But we can live with that, can’t we?

[1] Source: IDC Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide, October 2016