Reading, analysing and communicating with data is referred to as “data literacy”. Using this, employees at all levels may better understand, use data and machines to make informed decisions and share their findings with others. This can either be an advantage or a disadvantage for a company’s data-driven strategy, depending on how well its people comprehend and use it. Everyone is aware of the fact that data is the building block of everything today, an essential part of everyone’s work and it is important to have correct and accurate data as the digital era has its pros and cons and one of the biggest disadvantages is tampered data or inaccurate data. 

Access and availability of data is not everything unless you have the skills to understand, analyse and interpret it accurately. Data literacy is of great importance because if the data is not being used or understood to its capacity then the it is being wasted which in turn affects the entire work cycle.

What is data literacy?

In recent decades, data has been a major driver of innovation in both industry and society. With the use of data, firms may make more data-driven decisions and use numbers instead of intuition to guide their business strategy. However, having access to data isn’t enough to put a company on the road to success. Having personnel who understand and can make use of data is also necessary. This has resulted in a rise in the demand for data-literate corporate experts.

For a greater chance at success in today’s increasingly data-driven environment, get a head start on your data literacy education by reading the following overview. A person’s capacity to read, understand, and make use of data is referred to as “data literacy.” It is possible to teach non-data professionals how to read, analyse, and use data in order to make better decisions. Managers and employees seeking to enhance their contributions to the company’s bottom line should become more adept at working with and understanding data.

How to implement data literacy in your organization?

• Understanding the lack of data analysis and finding out the weak links within the organization so that you can work on those to start with. Find out where data isn’t being optimally used because of communication issues.
• Another important step is to explain why data literacy is so crucial. Those who grasp the “why” of a project are more willing to support the training needed to achieve that goal. Be sure to highlight the importance of data literacy to the success of your company.
• Your data must be accessible, pliable, analysed and shared by everyone. In order to make this easier, you may want to look into the use of technology such as a data visualisation or management dashboard.
• Introducing a data literacy program can be a good start for any organization. Start with one business unit at a time, based on data analyses of “lost opportunities.” You can use the information gained from your pilot programme to make changes in future programmes. Don’t forget to have fun with your data literacy programme. It’s important to remember that data training doesn’t have to be tedious.
• It is important to demonstrate to the rest of the organisation the importance your team places on utilising data to make decisions and support everyday operations. Leaders in your organisation must make data insight a priority. Make sure that any new product or service concepts are supported by relevant data and analytics. As a result of this, data-first culture will develop over time.

In order to be competitive and relevant in the future, every organisation must put their efforts toward data literacy. To be successful, your organisation needs to be data literate; the more data-literate it is, the better it will perform.

Why data literacy is important in data integration process?

To achieve success in data integration projects, the company must have a high level of data literacy. Data integration projects do not always lead to an increase in data literacy. Data integration projects fall into two major categories: 

1) isolated instances led by a single division or a few departments

2) cross-divisional or even enterprise-wide attempts to integrate data sources and standardise data across the organisation.

Data literacy is unlikely to spread across organisational borders if the data warehouse is being used by a small number of employees in the first scenario. It’s not uncommon for the data warehouse to be commissioned by personnel who are already involved in the source systems. The degree of data literacy will stay low as long as the data warehouse is not used by others.

Data Quality Management competency and a significant effort to standardise architectures, data models and business processes that deal with data are often the second type of project. In many cases, these types of data integration efforts are the result of a company’s exposure to data-related hazards, which have made it almost impossible to ignore data anarchy any longer.

There are some organisations where few personnel are trained to successfully deal with their own data; some companies are even startled to discover what data is really stored on their systems during data integration initiatives, which is why I mention it. If you don’t have a grasp of data literacy, you won’t have the ability to raise public awareness about data concerns and policies. In order to address data quality concerns thoroughly and elevate executive understanding of the strategic relevance of data governance inside the firm, you need a critical mass of data literati.

Data is the heart and soul of such projects and therefore being data literate is very important here. Having access to data is not enough, the need to understand and interpret it is equally important.

About Kanerika
Kanerika is a niche consulting firm building efficient enterprises with deployment of automated, integrated and analytics solutions. Kanerika enables efficient enterprises through its unique digital consulting frameworks and AIOps enabled compostable solution architecture. We partner with some of the top vendors to solve some of the critical data and process related challenges. We help some of the top brands across the globe in increasing their speed to respond in evolving market conditions, reducing their cost of operations, empowering them with the right tools and insights for effective decision making.