Data Driven Journey and Digital Transformation: How to Do It in Industries?

The Data Driven Journey (JDD) for industries is a path that needs digital transformation in order to complete the stages of building a data structure. It means the analytic maturation of a company.

It has to do with innovating, renewing, recycling, and even creating methodologies, tools, techniques, processes, and people. With transforming everything (or almost!) into something much more modern. How to transform data into intelligent decisions and leverage your company's profitability.

Recently, Matheus Dellagnelo, co-founder and CEO of Indicium, and Augusto Monteiro, systems coordinator at Grupo Moura, talked live in our webinar about all of this.

Understand the importance of data-driven culture and data in the lives of all companies, and how to follow Indictium's Data-Driven Journey to make a digital transformation in a healthy, safe, and consistent way.

Keep reading.

What does the start of a Data Driven Journey look like?

Let's start by making some provocations for you to ponder.

Do you know how much your company loses by not using the volume of data generated and that this is a real earning opportunity that cannot be disregarded?

Do you know how to use your company's data to revolutionize your processes by centralizing all information from different sources and using modern data analysis to visualize personalized dashboards and, therefore, be able to make assertive decisions about your production, for example?

Are you aware of how industries are becoming more agile and achieving more results while following the flow of JDD in the escalation of its analytical revolution to join the list of companies that are in industry 4.0?

This is not science fiction. Let's get to the facts about the beginning of the Moura Group's Data Driven Journey.

2010

This year, the group started its journey with a totally static BI (business intelligence) and totally dependent on a technology professional. This person needed to structure data and do the data visualization part, where they were very focused.

2013

They invested in a new data visualization tool, gaining some scalability and even managing to help the business area by having a more structured view of the data, but understanding that "what they were seeing" was not enough to be seen.

2017

They brought the self-service data model to the organization, working with it on the data availability part.

The technology area of the company itself, then, supported the entire apparatus by offering the data, and the business area entered the game by starting to build its dashboards.

It was the first movement of interaction with data between the areas of the company, and a very important step on the path to achieving analytical maturity.

Suddenly, the group realized that they had to redirect their gaze, shifting the focus from visualization tools to structuring data.

‍It was necessary to take a step back and structure the entire data ingestion chain, which is where the famous ETL comes in.

2020

They made the decision to work on the structural part with the data architecture and everything related to the data journey itself.

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Important: in parallel with the Data Driven Journey, the digital transformation of the Moura Group was taking place.

And the start for all this to start happening came from the business area and its needs: to become more digital in its processes. The Moura Group understood that its business needed to transform in this sense.

And the goal is that, by 2030 (they started in 2010, remember?), the Moura Group will have 100% digital processes.

With this in mind, several initiatives for the paradigm shift have begun. They internally instituted a digital committee involving executives and decision-makers to support, lead, and guide this transformation process.

It has become clear to everyone that the core of Industry 4.0 is data. And that the whole business intelligence part also needs data. That's when they turned their attention to the data – oil!

Data centralization

To put it simply, what digital transformation is, it implies acquiring new operating systems, new applications, a new website, monitoring production and production condition, and so on...

However, in order for you to put all these items into action, you need to have the structure ready to centralize data. Otherwise, the so-called data silos are loose, in parts, disconnected, making it impossible to create business artificial intelligence (BI).

In this disconnected way, it is not possible to cross-reference production and sales information, for example.

Therefore, digital transformation is key for the Data Driven Journey to happen. Both need to be accomplished.

With data decentralization, there is a lack of information, it is not possible to look at the whole picture, and it will not be possible to evolve in a data project for business expansion.

If you can relate to this, know that digital transformation is still a major challenge for most companies of all sizes.

Thinking about an industry like the Moura Group, with seven manufacturing plants and another two planned, 80 distributors spread throughout Brazil, five networks of exclusive customer service in the country, a technology institute totally focused on its product, for its technological evolution with the automakers, another internal institute in the group...

Anyway, the variety, the plurality of information is gigantic, don't you agree!?

But, just as the challenge of centralizing all of this is huge, so is the return on this work.

What is a Data Driven Journey?

The Data-Driven Journey for industries is a path that requires digital transformation in order to complete the stages of building a data structure. It means the analytic maturation of a company.

We use the metaphor of space to illustrate the five stages of the journey. It is a more didactic, clear and simple way to show the path that all companies in the world are following, or will follow soon, to use more and more data.

The whole world has realized the value ($$$) of data. No wonder the pun between data and oil.

It turns out that, in order to get to the point of extracting the maximum value from this raw material (see step five in the previous illustration), your entire company needs to follow a path, fulfill steps, build a structure, mature analytically.

Basically, this is the Data Driven Journey, and we're going to explain the five steps.

The 5 stages of the Moura Group's Data Driven Journey

Step 1

The first stage is pre-launch. Here at Indicium, we affectionately call this moment "the spreadsheet show." This is when companies extract from each of their systems, such as ERP, CRM, etc., reports and... They put everything in an Excel spreadsheet to make manual reports based on that.

When the Moura Group started its Data Driven Journey, the company was 100% at this "spreadsheet show" moment. That's when their team realized they couldn't stay at it anymore. There needed to be a way to visualize the information more quickly.

Step 2

The second stage is launch: the point of visualization of point data, such as a BI of a specific area. For example, you take part of the ERP, part of the CRM, part of the marketing, put it all in a spreadsheet (and it's all awesome!) in an automated or even manual way.

With this, you can use BI tools to speed up the process of visualizing business intelligence data.

However, it is not yet a robust centralized data structure. But it's an important input directly extracted from that spreadsheet data or a transactional database, if you have one.

Now, going back a little, realize that, in the history of the Moura Group, the years from 2010 to 2017 were years of advances in stage two. What advances? New tools and more autonomy for the areas, which started to develop their visualizations with a new structure.

When a company moves forward in its journey, it naturally runs into obstacles, such as, for example, not having data centralization ready or the organization complete.

Governance is almost always lacking, have you heard of it? And there is a lack of cross-referencing of information. And intelligence operating in all areas. We need to make progress on these points.

Step 3

And when the company realizes that it needs to move forward again, it's time for step three: finally, the centralization of data, the point we call zero gravity.

Currently, at this time, we work with advanced analytics to do everything in an organized way, following standards, methodologies, processes and using tools that allow both an industry the size of Moura and simpler companies to have a centralized data structure.

We joke internally at Indicium that it's the bricks: you put each one, piece by piece like Lego. In the case of a company the size of the Moura Group, we will have many pieces. In the case of a small business, we will naturally have fewer pieces.

But what matters is that you know that at this point we centralize all the information. And we do this in a data lake – the data lake.

And then we structure that data organized in a data warehouse (DW) – the data house. So, we move forward.

Step 4

It is the DWs that make it possible to centralize data and organize it to visualize it in the fourth step. That's when all the company's data is finally connected to the central, single source, with governance, with quality, with process.

Everything is ready for the company to have operational, tactical, and strategic data in one click.

The Moura Group started its Data Driven Journey in 2010, but it was from 2020 that the team realized that it needed to organize the data (in the third stage) to have it structured (in the fourth stage), with a much greater intelligence serving the group, making its business much more profitable.

Step 5

It is at this moment that the eyes of those who know our projects shine: the arrival at stage five. It is the phase of predictive and prescriptive data modeling with artificial intelligence and the use of machine learning.

In this stage called and reaching the fourth, the company no longer just wants to see what is happening and what has already happened, it wants to know what will happen, which customer will stop buying, which part of the production will fail (even before it fails).

Yes, at this stage you have all these answers. You have full control and the power to increase quality, sell, reduce cost, waste, error, etc.

How long does it take to get to the interstellar stage?

The Data Driven Journey is these five steps outlined in our infographic, but we know that, in practice, it doesn't happen in such a fluid and linear way.

There are areas of the company that advance very fast, others not so much...

Today, at Grupo Moura, there are areas present at each stage of the journey. Even starting in 2010, they have sectors still in the first stage, the pre-launch, working hard to reach departmentalized BI.

And it has more advanced areas, bringing very positive results to the group with its data already centralized, already going to the fourth stage and managing to interact with other areas.

Their big challenge is to achieve the fifth step and the famous analytical advantage in all sectors, being a 100% data-based, truly data-driven company.

Do you realize that much of the Data Driven Journey depends on the maturity of the business? The maturity of each sector of the company?

The interstellar stage is truly a milestone, an achievement that totally changes the course of the company. For the better, of course. There is a lot of financial return to be achieved, and it is at this stage that this happens.

But, without completing each step, brick by brick, from the base, this structure does not grow because it is not maintained.

The data structure, in order to be solid, robust, and scalable, needs to follow the construction steps within a very well-established process.

Companies that were born digital have a great advantage because they start at the front of this journey. And older companies, which were born analog, need to work a little harder to overcome the challenges of their own start.

People, cultural transformation and democratization of information and knowledge

The first major challenge for a company in this whole process that we have talked about so far is ... The people.

And this has everything to do with cultural transformation, data driven culture, data literacy, data literacy, data culture...

It has to do with changing the thinking, the mindset of the whole company. People are the ones who think, not the machines. And people need to understand data as an asset within the organization.

Not to mention, all necessary improvements involve people.

Another major challenge is the democratization of information by having a single source of truth with validated data and correct numbers. An accessible, clear source, available to all areas and people of the company.

And to have data available in a democratic way, all data sources must be very well documented. Another challenge.

All documentation, in order to promote autonomy and maintain governance, needs to be clear, follow processes and standards. This is the right way to democratize information and knowledge for all levels of the company. Everyone should be able to share and acquire.

What to document?

Everything.

For instance:

• Product features: if someone needs to know how something works, what that item is, why use it like that, what it is for;
• tutorial: to know/teach the step-by-step of an execution, how it works, what it is for;
• API: to share/teach patterns, pass on instructions, present routines to access an app's functionalities, explain how its architecture works, etc.

Can you see that the change of culture in the company is something very dense and substantial?

How long does it take to transform an old, conservative company that was born analog?

There is no set, set time for a company to reach the fifth step and use predictive and prescriptive data modeling to reap the rewards of the analytical advantage.

You see your neighbor's grass growing, and you know they've been investing in technology, but you have no idea how to start. And the clock is ticking for him, for you, and for everyone else alike...

So, you know that the sooner you plant the flag in stage one, the pre-launch, the sooner you get to stage five, the interstellar, the one that makes the company's eyes and accounts shine.

So, get started, but take your time.

Indicium, for example, even though we were a company that was born digital, we had our data structure and our data culture well established by four years of age. Until then, our processes were constantly changing and adapting. And so do we.

From the centralization of data, logically our performance indicators have changed for the better!

But look: it's been four years of building this, studying, thinking, creating, recycling, changing, learning, making mistakes, arranging and expanding a line of complexity in such a way that we can no longer live without continuing to develop it internally every day.

So, if you value developing your company, this does imply investment in data, which also involves all the change that we have already told you about so far. It is a set of actions that brings a LOT of value to the business and all areas of the company.

And the bigger the company, the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward, and perhaps the longer it takes to make it happen. Or not...

But know that data can't be bought. Not even the Data Driven Journey can be bought. That's part of a construct. Remember the bricks?

In short, telling you today that it's worth investing in data to grow your business is raining on the wet, because that's already true.

Now, as for how long this will take, we have no way of knowing. There are companies that want to accelerate their journey, and they do. Following everything we've talked about here, but with more aggressive implementations and high investments.

Either way, the process must be healthy for the organization.
This is a work that can take one, five or more years, but the return on investment does not exactly depend on that time. It will only come if no bricks are left out.

Your challenge is to learn how to do it

If your company is older, conservative and born analog, having contact with the modern approach to data - MDS, first, can give you a scare!

But then comes the excitement...

A very conservative corporate culture tends to have a harder time in its transformation and to initially look at the modern approach to data with more constraints and fears.

The Moura Group had already turned this key and showed a great desire to change its culture, so much so that its transition has been a success. And Indicium worked carefully translating the technical ideas very well so that everyone understood their role in the journey.

Reaching the analytical advantage is the goal of the group (and of all companies), but the team is very clear that it is necessary to guarantee beans and rice every single day.

And beans and rice is the maintenance of everything, of centralization, governance, of the robust structure that supports and gives capacity for growth. Everything should be round, being monitored and working 100%.

Integration of data and areas: everyone's engagement

We've seen that doing the basics is key to building a solid data structure. And this will depend a lot on how the data team relates to the other teams in the company.

The technology area at Grupo Moura had a more reactive performance, correcting certain situations, for example. Now, the potential of bringing this area closer to the rest of the company has become evident.

Not least because there is no digital transformation only in the technology area, nor only in the business area.

That's why it's so important to also think about how to engage everyone in this data-driven vision. The Moura Group has developed an excellent approach to generate this engagement with Indicium's 360º Data Consultancy.

That's when the integration between the areas began to happen, and the business area began to be understood by everyone, just as each sector understood that, in order to have its departmental BI, it needed to have everything structured, the entire chain of data ingestion until its consumption in a visualization tool.

At Grupo Moura, technology professionals started to work in an integrated way, capturing data and building the entire base structure so that it was possible to make a complete diagnosis of a given business area.

Then, based on that photograph, the data strategy for that area was planned.

This structuring of each area is fundamental to the entire project. It's something that sounds so simple, but it's still not at the heart of most companies' stocks. In other words, it's part of the culture change that needs to happen.

The development of leaders and technical teams that takes place in this process also denotes the growth and level of maturity achieved in general.

Certainly, this is a path of no return. The Data Driven Journey we designed is real and every company can make it happen. It translates the process that the market has been practicing.

Data-driven initiatives in practice

We're going to show you that a lot has been happening. Here are some examples of initiatives that the company has been adopting in practice during its journey.

• Rede Moura is a new business that emerged in this transformation process. The implementation of the Modern Data Stack - MDS with Indicium was part of this, and together we designed the architecture and assembled the entire data structure.
• We recently implemented dbt, which brought a new leap in the group's growth.
• Data visualization with UX principles was something that changed our business even more.
• The company has created internal programs called Engagement.
• There is a corporate university where more modern technical topics in the area of data are also discussed.
• There are leadership development programs that address cultural change, digital transformation, mindset, technical and behavioral aspects, including.
• There is an internal program with knowledge tracks based on three strands: automation, lo-code, data and analytics.
• Grupo Moura's internal technology team does an incredible job of approaching the business areas and customers, promoting mentoring.
• The company does internal lives in which the topic of data is also addressed.
• MouraTeq is a new external project to attract and train new professionals in the technology area.

These are some of the changes of the Moura Group's Data Drive Journey coming to fruition.

Data Driven Journey: Analytics Engineer Needed

Finally, a very important point. Data or technology professionals often have a very good ability to find new indicators, to ask themselves what the exit possibilities might be, and to add value to them.

But these same people have been faced with the difficulty of doing everything manually.

Thus, simulating a new parameter, for example, can take hours, days, even months... And it's very likely that the deal won't happen...

On the other hand, those who are analytics engineers know SQL, know how to work with data in DW, have the autonomy to access the data and see it in a more robust way, not only in Excel, and will:

• Transform that data;
• get insights from visualizations;
• Generate the little pieces of your data structure construction by fitting them together perfectly.

This professional here at Indicium we call a "steroid data analyst." And having this person working with the areas is so fundamental in the Data Driven Journey that we created the first Analytics Engineering Training in Brazil to meet this growing market demand.

In fact, we trained more than 15 employees of the Moura Group on our data and analytics education platform, the Indicium Academy.

Indicium plays a fundamental role in transforming the lives of companies and the people with whom it has contact, translating very clearly the forms, the paths, the pieces to be chosen in the always personalized construction of each Data Driven Journey.

From the Moura Group, we heard that Indicium fit like a glove. We built an incredible partnership, which translated the entire technical data ecosystem in an accessible way to bring results to the whole group.

There were a lot of provocations taking the whole team out of their comfort zone. A fundamental movement for everything to happen.

Your team can also bring culture change into your organization, in each area.

Anyway, if you want to train your team, one or more people, with our high-level team at Indicium Academy, or implement the modern data stack in your company starting your Data Driven Journey, access this link and let's talk about our partnership.

Success and see you later!