Dun & Bradstreet Predictions for 2023: The Key Role of Data in Building Business Resilience

As the global economy continues to face immense challenges, including recession, experts from Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of data and analytics for business decision-making, have shared their insights on the key factors that businesses must consider to make the most of their data in 2023.

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—- Businesses are facing another challenging year due to the continuation of slow economic growth, increasingly complex regulations, and enormous ongoing costs. The most effective ways to ensure business resilience are proactive action and readiness for an unpredictable economic environment. Data and analytics can help businesses not only manage and mitigate risks better but also identify opportunities for adaptation and growth – commented Ed Thorne, CEO of Dun & Bradstreet.

Dun & Bradstreet provides six forecasts regarding data in 2023; from the advantages of quality over quantity to a more significant focus on privacy protection and data management.

1. Quality data will become vital as businesses try to cope with ‘unprecedented’ situations

When it comes to maximizing data utilization, businesses should focus on quality rather than quantity.

Using low-quality or inappropriate data can cause more harm than good, dilute the power of valuable data owned by the organization, and make it difficult to derive real value. Nevertheless, “cleaning” data and ensuring the currency of the organization’s data cloud has proven to be a significant business challenge.

Therefore, it is essential to have a dedicated team responsible for maintaining the data that the business possesses. Although technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) can help reduce this burden, expert human oversight is necessary to avoid potential errors. In a world where we often face numerous ‘unprecedented’ events (climate crisis, pandemic, unprecedented disruptions in global supply chains) and where artificial intelligence often learns from past events to help predict future outcomes, it is easier to identify the root causes of problems. Predictive methodologies require different data and analytics to better understand an uncertain future.

2. We can expect an increase in the volume of regulations governing data

The regulatory focus on privacy protection and data management will continue to grow. Businesses will need to monitor their data and analytical methods to ensure that they are managed and used not only in compliance with applicable regulations but also in a manner that guarantees ongoing compliance with the constantly evolving regulatory landscape. Regulatory bodies worldwide are not only focused on privacy but also on data location, ethical use of data and artificial intelligence, cross-border data transfers, and the simplicity of the methods used.

3. Businesses will need to do more with less due to financial constraints

As global markets begin to enter recession, businesses will increasingly feel financial pressures. Effective and efficient use of data and automation will therefore become crucial for businesses looking to streamline operations and help their teams make smarter decisions faster. Data is not only useful to departments responsible for planning but also helps sales, marketing, and ultimately senior management functions perform their jobs holistically and effectively. Resilience, especially during extremely stressful periods, can be enhanced by having the right information for decision-making during stressful times to ensure a quick recovery in the future.

Data can and should be used for better financial planning – teams will need to know more than ever whether their clients will pay on time, as well as manage their suppliers’ deadlines to ensure timely deliveries. Stress within any ecosystem typically arises from a lack of direct interaction between parties. When it comes to sales teams, data helps them retain existing loyal customers by enabling a better understanding of the best moments and situations for maintaining satisfaction and predicting and gaining insight into changing customer needs, while simultaneously uncovering new opportunities to build powerful sales channels.

4. Achieving ROI (return on investment) requires best-in-class data

To ensure that businesses make the most effective business decisions, they must feed their systems with high-quality data that is also accurate, timely, and purposeful. Data is too often outdated, incomplete, or obtained from a single, potentially biased source. There is truth in the well-known saying, “garbage in, garbage out.” Data of satisfactory quality provides businesses with the appropriate intelligence that can help them navigate uncertain periods.

To extract the most value from their data, businesses need to cleanse, validate, consolidate, enrich, and connect that data into one comprehensive and accurate representation. Businesses will need to carefully consider what data they need and assess whether that data is suitable for meeting their needs and making strategic decisions.

5. Businesses will need to continuously reassess their strategies

Organizations will need to constantly revise and examine their data strategies. A data strategy that worked well in 2021 or even 2022 may not serve its intended purpose in 2023. Continuous questioning and challenging will enable businesses to implement data strategies that reflect business needs, are designed to overcome challenges and risks, and identify opportunities.

Businesses will need to take appropriate steps to ensure recovery, not just survival – as difficult as it may be, businesses will need to think about the future to be ‘perfectly prepared’ for the moment when the world emerges from the current crisis. If it becomes necessary to reduce spending, organizations will need to spend smarter.

6. When it comes to data, businesses need help in 2023.

Business leaders must surround themselves with experts who will bring them value with an emphasis on providing new insights into data. Businesses will need to find the right partners to best set up and implement a powerful data strategy to build resilient businesses.

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