An average organization only uses 50% of their available data for decision-making. This is significant when you consider 70% of late adopters base their decisions on gut feeling or experience, while 60% of best-in-class companies use data analytics when making decisions.

Data is powerful when used to its full capability; by using all available data, an organization can establish a clear competitive advantage. Storing and regularly accessing relevant information will allow your organization to save time and money while drastically improving decision quality. Below are some of the key benefits that data utilization can have on your organization.

6 Reasons Data is Key for Risk Managers

1. Increased efficiency

In a well-established organization, it’s easy to continue doing a task the same way out of habit and convenience. Without referencing data, you may get stuck in a routine and not recognize internal flaws. Streamlining people, processes, and tasks will increase efficiency across the organization.

2. Better decision making

Analyzing your data will provide information required to run the organization, such as what course of action is necessary and whether your strategies have been successful. To do this, you need to have the right kind of data; ensure that you collect relevant, accurate, and complete information.

The more data you store, the more information you will have to base your next decision on. This can lead to more creative and smart strategies as well as help you choose positive risks and pursue paths that will lead to growth.

3. Financial health

Using data effectively will allow an organization to save money. By consistently tracking and monitoring costs, prices, and other useful information, you can track when spending is higher than it should be. It can also flag problem areas or help you identify costs that you shouldn’t be incurring. Further, making a habit of storing data means you will have a quick and easy process if you are ever audited or when entering tax season.

4. Making a case for any project

No matter the business idea, there needs to be some data and information to support it. By accessing stored information, you will be able to analyze data and use it to support a proposed project. With the collected data, you will be able to present your case to supervisors or employees to prove that the decision would benefit the organization.

5. Increased accountability

Without storing data, it can be difficult to know when something isn’t as it should be. A thorough database can allow management to recognize signs of fraudulent activity. It will show employees that they are being monitored, increasing their accountability and ethical actions. If something does go wrong, your organization will be able to show it had some measures in place to try and prevent the incident, thus protecting brand reputation.

6. Preventative measures

Having data allows you to analyze it. This will let you identify and mitigate against threats, reduce repetitive losses and lawsuits, and even lower insurance premiums. For more detail about the benefits of data analytics, check out our next in-depth blog post!

Even if you know the benefits, managing data can be difficult. If you’re stuck using spreadsheets or another out-dated manual system, ClearRisk’s Risk Management Information System may be exactly what you need. Our centralized database is customizable, searchable, and accessible by any enabled team member. Our Online Data Submission Web Portal allows employees to submit data directly into the system from any smart device. With our system, you can do more with your data. Want more information? Learn more below. 

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