The saying goes, data may disappoint, but it never lies; but whilst data itself cannot lie, wrongful interpretation of the data, or looking at data that isn’t from a live source, can skew your view of reality. This could lead to erroneous decision-making, missed opportunities, and a host of different issues.
Below are a few different ways you can tackle data inaccuracies, and ensure your presentation of data is truthful; providing a basis for sound decision making.
Out of date
Is your data up-to-date? Or is it out of date?
Just like you wouldn’t eat out-of-date food, out-of-date data should be just as unappetising when using it to make business decisions.
With automated rebate management software, such as e-bate, you can ensure your data is always up-to-date.
How? Using automated systems allows e-bate to take data straight from various sources, such as EPOS and data systems, presenting them in a live dashboard, providing data truth.
Why is this important? Well, it provides an accurate picture of what’s going on, allowing informed decision-making, based on true data
A business decision backed with live data information is a confident one, so finance teams can provide powerful recommendations to the rest of the business, promoting their position to Business partners.
Time lag
Without a rebate management system, you may have fresh data coming in, but that doesn’t mean it’s available to use; the data collected still has to be processed and analysed manually, which can be a very time-consuming process.
Amongst the many potential issues manual processing of data brings, one key issue is the time lag.
Having such a lag means, no matter how fast your data delivery systems are (from information source to computer), there will always be a time bottleneck, as someone will have to manually enter and sort the data.
With such bottlenecks, although the data will be up-to-date, you have to wait a good amount of time for it to be usable, by which time, guess what? The data will no longer be up-to-date!
This can lead to delays in making key decisions, and potentially missing time-sensitive opportunities.
Human error
Humans make mistakes all the time and, sadly, that is just a fact of life.
However, when completing quantitative tasks, it is highly unlikely that a machine will make a mistake.
This is a key advantage to using an automated rebate management solution.
Data gets moved into the system and not inputted by hand, reducing the margin of error.
Why does this matter? Because, if you are using data to make decisions, inaccurate data could lead to incorrect decision making.
While reducing the number of input errors, an automated system will save the time of employees. This allows them to focus and spend time on other tasks.
As you can see, it is possible to get up-to-date, reliable data that is available the instant it is created.
This will allow you to make accurate decisions in the moment; leading to better business outcomes.
Data truth will also give you a clearer view of what is going on in your business, allowing for accurate goal setting.
For more information, get in touch today.
