Forging a partnership between analytics overseers and marketers

One of the hot-button issues in analytics today is the challenge of aligning companies' information technology offices with their marketing and customer service departments in order to deliver better, faster results through data.

IT offices are doing great things with data today. They're gathering information faster than ever, and they're going to great lengths to ensure data quality. But in order to actually put information to work in the business setting, the IT department needs to be on the same page with other branches of a company - the ones who are actually using data-driven analytics on a regular basis.

This can be tricky, but there are strategies that can help. According to TechTarget, it begins with upgraded technology. Tim Balliet, director of technology for Duluth Trading Company in Wisconsin, says that businesses can gain a clear advantage in this area by moving their processes into the cloud. This way, IT and other offices can work together more seamlessly.

"Forget about the time for hardware and waiting for skill sets in house," Balliet told the news source. "Move everything out so we can remove the roadblocks. When we do sit down with marketing, and they've got these great ideas - and some of them are great ideas - we have the ability to do it in an R&D environment, and I don't have to say it's going to be weeks."

The key to deploying data in a business setting today is to act quickly and efficiently. No marketing team wants to wait weeks or months to get an accurate picture of its customer base - by then, that information has become outdated, and there's likely a rival business out there with better data. But with top-notch technology, strong collaboration and creative thinking, any company can remain competitive.