The Data to Decision Cycle

Remote communication technologies continue to prove out as highly reliable and increasingly necessary to companies who depend on remotely located operations for a large part of their revenue. Therefore, the time has come to spend more attention on the decisions that can be driven through the use of solutions that take advantage of these technologies.

What emanates from the field is typically data. Properly utilized, this data can be transformed into high-value decisions that can have tremendous impact on remote operational efficiency, speed and profit contribution.

In this first of several posts, I’d like to address the concept of how data can be transformed into high-value decisions. We call it the Data to Decision Cycle.

This cycle is repeated over and over countless times each day in every business with remote assets, and is made up of four basic steps:

1. Data is generated, most typically by field personnel and machines (M2M)
2. That data is collected, aggregated, and Analysis is performed by some method. Perhaps it is Excel spreadsheet, accounting software, a maintenance application or even push pins in a wall map
3. The analysis yields decision making Information
4. A Decision is then made based on the information

 There are two elements associated with the decision -- Time and Value. Time is the period from data generation to a decision. Value is driven by the importance of the decision’s impact on risk or profit. Value also increases when time decreases -- that is to say, the faster you can execute an important decision, the more valuable it is.

A key point -- data generation is not the same as data collection. For example, data is generated the moment a machine shuts down, but this data might not be collected for an hour, a day or even a month. Thus, speeding up the data collection, and moving it on to analysis faster, creates greater value.

In upcoming entries, we’re going to dig deeper on how time is shortened and value increased. We’re also going to delve into why most companies have not addressed this obvious opportunity, and the right ways for going about it.