A data strategy is a structured plan that defines how an organisation uses its data to achieve its business goals. It ensures that data is collected, stored, managed and analysed efficiently in order to make informed decisions and achieve competitive advantages.
A data strategy is necessary in order to systematically utilise data as a valuable asset. It helps companies to obtain useful information from large volumes of data, minimise risks and meet compliance and data protection requirements.
A well-implemented data strategy improves the efficiency and quality of data processing, supports compliance with data protection and security standards and increases the company's ability to innovate.
A company should develop a data strategy if it wants to base its decision-making on data, if it wants to improve its data processing or if new regulatory requirements such as the GDPR require structured handling of data.
Important steps include defining objectives, analysing existing data sources, establishing guidelines and standards for handling data and training employees in order to successfully implement the strategic objectives.