Turn business data into a decision someone can act on

A spreadsheet can be full while the next action is still unclear. Before adding another report, decide which question the business needs to answer and who will act on the result.

Two findings, with their context

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's UK Business Data Survey 2024 found that 77% of UK businesses handled digitised data. Among businesses handling that data, 21% said they analysed it to produce new insights or knowledge.

These are different groups, so the percentages should not be subtracted or shown as competing shares of one total. The survey involved 3,911 businesses, with 3,340 in the data-handling group. Fieldwork ran from October 2023 to February 2024. The figures are survey estimates from that period, not live measurements or results achieved by AAG.

Read the original DSIT survey and its methodology.

AAG's practical interpretation

Keeping records and using records are separate jobs. A useful first step is to connect one existing record to one recurring decision. More collection is not automatically the answer.

Take an enquiry list. A total for the month tells you how busy the inbox was. A list of enquiries still waiting for a reply tells someone what to do today.

Define the measure before designing the dashboard:

1. Question: which enquiries have passed our agreed reply window?
2. Record: the received time, assigned person, status and first reply time.
3. Rule: agree how weekends, duplicates and enquiries awaiting customer information are handled.
4. Action: the assigned person replies or explains the delay.
5. Check: compare a small sample with the original messages before relying on the list.

Choose the reply window to suit your operation. This example is a planning method, not an industry benchmark.

Make missing information visible

A blank reply date may mean no reply was sent. It may also mean someone replied elsewhere and the record was not updated. Display that uncertainty clearly. Do not quietly convert an unknown value into a success or a failure.

Give each important measure an owner, a definition and a last-updated time. If a feed stops working, show that the information is stale. Someone using a dashboard should be able to tell the difference between no outstanding work and no recent data.

Start with the smallest view that supports the decision. Our guides to operational data and dashboard design explain the next steps.

Source and credit

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UK Business Data Survey 2024, published 27 June 2024. Statistics are reproduced with attribution under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Practical examples and interpretation are by Anglo Ascot Group.