IMDA's BDDB levels up data analytics for smarter decision-making

Harnessed effectively, data helps business owners make smarter decisions – from boosting product sales to driving customer acquisition. Data also plays a key role when it comes to measuring employee morale and productivity. However, too many businesses are still operating based on intuition. A lack of skilled resources and the inability to extract and consolidate data across sources are some of the main challenges small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face when using data analytics for their business needs¹. This challenge is likely compounded by the lack of knowledge and competencies to approach data analytics.

It can be difficult for businesses to keep pace with the evolving digital landscape and increasing volume of data collected over time. IMDA and the Personal Data Protection Commission launched the Better Data Driven Business (BDDB) programme to help SMEs improve capabilities in data usage and management. As part of the BDDB programme, businesses have access to a free, easy-to-use business intelligence (BI) t ool to transform existing data into actionable insights for greater business results. IMDA's user-friendly BI tool is designed for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business SMEs.

Data-driven decisions in action

Enterprising businesses are already leveraging data and analytics to improve their operations or services. Like many start-ups and SMEs, local e-commerce platform Kearea (830.67KB) initially bought stock based on a ‘feeling’ of what would be most popular amongst its customers. With excess inventory incurring losses when inevitably sold at a discounted rate, Kearea started examining its sales data and stock movements. A basket analysis of customer purchasing behaviour enabled the team to map associations between different products – from vacuum cleaners and filter packs to monitors and headsets – and plan stock purchases with greater precision. Business growth increased as a result – up by 50 per cent over a six- to nine-month period.

Homegrown travel management company Plover Trip (761.20KB) set out to overcome the operational inefficiencies caused by manual data entry within the travel sector. The team achieved this by building the company’s digital infrastructure around a master database to house and consolidate all data onto a secure cloud-based server. As well as making operational improvements, this enabled them to enhance their customer service by helping customers more accurately forecast their annual travel budgets, with a 98 per cent customer retention rate to show for it.

Similarly, luxury hotel Grand Hyatt Singapore (1.07MB) developed a proprietary revenue management system that allowed managers to review data and identify trends that can help them make better strategic decisions for long-term revenue planning and operational measures. Simple changes such as deploying more staff on days with historically less satisfactory feedback led to a 41 per cent increase in check-in satisfaction scores in just four months.

Local brands like Bee Cheng Hiang have also reaped the benefits of BDDB to make their business a more intelligent one.

Data analytics doesn’t have to be daunting

These real-world examples demonstrate just how powerful data can be when it comes to making informed business decisions. More importantly, they demonstrate how easily data analytics can be embedded into all areas of a business using a few simple steps. With tools and resources, SMEs seeking a competitive edge can now ensure that every decision is based on sound business intelligence. Join the many SMEs who are already unlocking the value of data to improve business outcomes by using IMDA’s free business intelligence tool for your business.