All that data. And you're still guessing.

Businesses collect more data than ever. It sits across customer systems, finance platforms, operational tools, spreadsheets, websites and countless other places. There are dashboards, reports and metrics for almost everything.

And yet apparently simple questions can still be surprisingly difficult to answer.

Having data isn't the same as having useful information. It may be incomplete, inconsistent or difficult to access. Different teams may define the same thing differently. Nobody may be entirely sure which source to trust. And sometimes the problem starts even earlier: businesses collect what their systems happen to produce rather than working out what they actually need to know.

Great data changes that. It gives people a clearer view of what's happening, helps them make better decisions and gives them greater confidence to act. It can reveal opportunities, connect information across the business, improve processes, help manage risk and demonstrate capability to customers, regulators and partners. It can make automation and AI possible – and give you greater confidence in what they produce. Great data doesn't just tell you things. It makes things possible.

In this talk, Alan explores what turns data from something a business simply has into something it can genuinely use. He looks at why more data doesn't necessarily create more understanding, the importance of starting with the questions the business needs to answer, and how ownership, consistency, accessibility, quality and context determine whether data becomes useful information.

Because the goal isn't perfect data. Nor is it another dashboard. It's having the right information, in a form people can trust and use, when they need it – so that better decisions can lead to better outcomes.

Who is this talk for?

Business leaders and senior decision-makers who know their organisation has plenty of data but still find it harder than it should be to get reliable answers, make confident decisions or use that data to enable what the business wants to do next. It's particularly relevant for organisations looking to get more value from their information, operate more effectively, demonstrate greater control, or create stronger foundations for growth, automation and AI.

What will they take away?

A clearer way to think about what makes data genuinely valuable – starting not with what they can collect, but with what the business needs to know and do. They'll leave better able to identify why their existing data isn't giving them the answers they need, what needs to change, and where better information could unlock better decisions, greater confidence and new possibilities for the business.

About Alan

Alan Paterson is the founder of AIK Advisory and has spent more than 30 years helping organisations make sense of data, technology and information. His experience spans businesses of very different sizes, sectors and levels of maturity, including highly regulated environments. Find out more →