The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

155 R E TA I L & C PG I NT E R V I EW D ata is becoming one of the most valuable assets in business, with decision makers able to use it to understand the success of products and services, make informed decisions on stock and ultimately create better and more personalised customer experiences. “Data is vital to inform critical decisions around new routes tomarket, systems to support business agility, and new, more resilient supply chains,” says Andy Smith, global technology alliances director at Talend. “As a result, after people, data is the most valuable asset for every single com- pany in driving revenue, innovation, customer engagement, and reducing costs and risk. “Data is everywhere and in everyone’s hands. Most organisations have understood the value that data can bring to transform, achieve opera- tional efficiencies or create new business models.” Despite this, Smith believes some things have become even more challenging for businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Covid-19 forced traditional retail to accel- erate their digital transformation and move online,” says Smith. “As they set out to improve their digital experience to survive, they found themselves with lots of data, without knowing what benefits to get from it or how to organise it. Unfortunately, data only has real value if it is well managed, well organised, trusted and of high quality. We help them understand the value of data and how it can inform their strategic decisions. Business needs healthy data at speed to transform the customer experience.” Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also a major consideration as environmental, social and ethical issues are increasingly becoming an integral part of business decision-making. “In the last few years, companies have grown more concerned about their responsibility when it comes to ethics or their impact on the environ- ment,” says Smith. “A client may want to be able to better calculate its carbon dioxide footprint, to take corrective actions on a complete chain to be able to improve its emissions. We are working to provide concrete answers to these CSR questions.” Despite the widespread understanding of the value of data, many organisations are still strug- gling to fully understand the data itself. It pre- vents them from becoming truly data-driven. According to a recent Talend survey, 78 per cent of business leaders say they face challenges in using their data, and more than a third say they simply aren’t using it to make the majority of their decisions. “For decades, managing and using data for analysis was focused on the mechanics of the process: collecting data, cleaning it, storing it and cataloging it,” says Smith. “It turns out this was the wrong problem to solve. The piecemeal approach most companies have adopted doesn’t work. It’s not enough.” Data health is Talend’s vision for a holis- tic system of preventative measures, effective While most retailers understand the value of using data to make more informed decisions, many don’t know how. Andy Smith shares how Talend is helping customers address this challenge Delivering data health to retailers BY E L LY YAT E S - ROB E R T S “Business needs healthy data at speed to transform the customer experience”