Data is the New Oil - Duuhumby, 2006
When the new resource is information in everyone's hands

“Data” is one that everyone talks about and pays attention to, especially in the business world. Both SMEs and Startups, who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic from the past few years, also have information or data as one of the aids for the decision making in business.

And since "data" has same value as "oil", then the more crude oil we can refine, the more value and business benefits will be create as well. In this article, AIS The StartUp would like to take everyone to see, how can startups use data to increase their competitiveness in the era of digital business?

Data in which we are currently speaking about is any information that is stored in an organization or a company but has not yet been processed, whether it is customer data, partner data, or sales data. They can be of any form, such as numbers, letters, pictures or sounds.

And as the data grows rapidly to become more and more Big Data, the speed of data management has to be improved as well. Which all these things are analyzed and built on, to help drive the start-up business to the point and meet the needs of customers in the digital age.

The Information we use is essential to communication, whether it's the information we discuss with the company or our customers, it helps both ourselves and our audience to understand the situation, like when we prepare information, pitching, presenting product information to investors or directors, to create interest in investing with our company.

And when we have information in hand, from consumer information to business advice from consultants or investors, which allow us to use that information to plan, analyze and develop into a future business plan. Another benefit of data is that it helps us make effective business decisions, during the past pandemic, many businesses had to adapt to survive, gathering information from multiple sources to help thinking, analyzing and managing can help make good decisions.

The data that we choose to analyze should be based on
“up-to-date, secure, and accurate”

And another interesting thing in this age of intense competition in the business world is that business data that we have in hand can create value for startup businesses and help increase their competitiveness more than you think. For example, our business is worth 50 million baht and there are large corporations interested in investing. If we have a data management system that is used to manage data in decision-making and business growth plans, it may create more investment negotiation power, possibly could lead to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal.

When there is a vast amount of information, therefore, we have to prioritize and use it in various fields, which can be divided into 5 levels:

• Data - Raw data that we have not analyzed can only be used in one case, as a reference.
• Information - Data that has been analyzed and reported to some extent, which can be seen as basic statistical data about what happened
• Knowledge - Information that has been analyzed and fact-checked and make us know what happened and what caused it.
• Insight - Processed Information which delves into a person's behavior and interests.
• Wisdom - Controlled and Predicted Information of what we should do in order to achieve what we want.

Because startup is a business that arises from the idea of developing solutions or creating innovations to help solve problems in people's daily life, therefore, the first priority of the startup business becomes the problem information of the target audience to be analyzed and further developed into products or services that meet the needs. It can also be used to predict trends and behaviors of customers to plan new business to generate more sales as well. In addition, data can also help us save money and reduce administrative costs as well.

For data management and analysis, in order to be able to effectively expand the startup business, it can be divided into two processes:

• Business Intelligence is the use of past and present data to be further analyzed to predict the future.
• Business Analytics is the use of past and present data to analyze current events.

Both can help us make better decisions about the direction of our business, as well as helping to support the organization's potential and ready to compete in the market. So, what are the tools? That can come in to help in analyzing Business Intelligence and Business Analytics. Let's see.

• Data Analysis with Power Pivot in MS EXCEL
• MS Power BI Desktop
• Data Visualization in Tableau Public

Starbucks is one of the top voted brands for customer care, not just the experience that customers get from the storefront service but the store's application is also well taken care of. This brand has extracted customer usage data such as frequently ordered menus, accumulation of points, or frequency of use, then use it to analyze and design a promotion or recommended menu that is suitable for the target audience.

Finally, nowadays start-up businesses are expanding rapidly. As we study and learn many strategies, techniques, in order to give us an advantage in terms of this type of business, therefore, it is important to focus on Big Data. A solid first step will allow the business to grow beautifully. As they say, “A good beginning is half the battle won.”

After all, good preliminary information is like putting the first button right. Therefore, even if the path of start-up business has to face changes all the time or other challenges, but if we have a good data set, combined with the right decisions, it can definitely lead the business to grow to success.

If you are interested in joining the AIS The StartUp family, you can submit your work at http://www.ais.th/thestartup/connect.html

The information in article is referred from AIS SME Growth Webinar on March 31st, 2022: "Using data to drive business in a new age of SMEs."