When you think of an asset, you might think of a physical object in your business that you’ve purchased. In fact, assets can be tangible and non-tangible, and some of the most important assets are often the ones you can’t physically hold in your hands. Here’s why your company’s data is one of the most important assets and how you can make sure you don’t take it for granted.
Protect it from outside sources
Before you realize the importance of your data, it’s first vital that you realize the importance of protecting your data. Whether it’s financially sensitive data, personal data about your employees, or even personal data about your customers, it’s vital that you keep it protected. If somebody hacked your system and stole this data, you would think that it would only be the cybercriminals that were breaking the law. If it was found that you weren’t doing enough to protect this data, your business could too be accused of breaking data protection law as well as having to deal with being the victim of a crime.
Protect your systems by installing anti-virus software, firewalls, and other security devices and limiting the number of people and the amount of software that has access to your data. For example, some software providers will claim ownership of any data you either store with them or even process through their program. For example, instead of relying on software like this, use platforms like Mattermost, which allows you to self-host the software behind your own firewalls and have full control over all of the data.
Use it to learn your strengths and weaknesses
One of the best things about data is that it’s one of the best producers of ideas. You might think that your employees are the ones that come up with the ideas of how to improve your business. Instead, by looking at the data, you can see what you need to improve and not what you think you should improve. Look for products that might not be selling as well as others and see what you can do to improve them. If parts of your processes are costing too much money to complete and seriously eating into your profit margins, consider if you can find a cheaper way of doing them. You could even conduct customer research and ask them what they don’t like about your products. Whatever feature comes up the most in the data is the one that needs addressing urgently.
Prove your worth
Even if your company is working as productively and efficiently as possible, data can still be an important way of proving your worth. Before any new customer or client spends money with you, they’ll want proof that your product or service is worth paying for. The best way of doing this is to provide them with statistics that prove how successful your product has been. This can be anything from how many customers have reported that the product works, how many you’ve sold, or even how much value a client has added to their business after using your service.
