Best Practices for Sourcing Data and Vendors

With Big Data now an established part of the way successful businesses think about the world, it’s important to look at the best ways of sourcing data and data vendors. Today we’re going to do just that, and offer a few of the best practices for this important job.

Take stock of your in-house data

The first step when considering buying-in data is to take stock of what data provision you already have. It’s well known that many organizations seem to keep better stock of their office furniture than they do of their data assets. Very often you may find that you already have the data you need within your organization. We’ve found that even within larger businesses it is common for data purchasing to be done on an ad hoc basis and with something of a silo mentality.

Be careful of a-la-carte

When you are considering data vendors, you should be very careful before choosing from an a-la-carte list of vendors and re-sellers. These lists are often rife with obsolete data and low quality tech support. Instead you may want to search for an IT sales intelligence provider. If you choose well, then your IT intelligence provider will be able to offer you a package that meets your specific needs.

There may also be a need for you to invest in training and skills for you staff in order to ensure that you are able to fully leverage your investment in data. Data is worthless without analysis.

How will the data improve your decision-making

It’s critical to approach the question of purchasing data from the right end. Too often people buy in their data and then try to fit it to their needs, rather than sitting down, working out their requirements and then purchasing appropriate data for those needs. So, before you do anything work out what it is that you hope to gain from being data driven. Then check if your current data provision covers your needs. And if not, you can go about the business of selecting an appropriate vendor for the additional data that you require.