Build a Data Driven Business: Follow These 4 Steps | Dreamfactory

by Spencer Nguyen • January 4, 2022

To harness the power of big data, more and more businesses are adopting a data-driven business model. Adopting such a model allows your company to benefit from the rich information that databases, APIs, and other modern tools provide. Have you been thinking about learning more about how to unlock and transform your data into insights with API-led data integration? This article reveals the four primary steps required to create a data-driven business.

The Benefits of a Data-Driven Business Model

The data-driven business model is the most effective business model for benefiting from the wealth of information provided by databases, APIs, and other related tools. Not only does this model excel at harnessing data, but it also allows deep analytics. This allows you to quickly respond to market changes and recognize trends faster. That also translates to competitive advantages and increased revenues.

To learn more about using APIs to help promote and develop your data-driven business model, contact DreamFactory for more information and help.

Here are the four fundamental steps to creating a powerful and effective data-driven business.

1. Creating a Data and Analytics Strategy

Like nearly anything that we build of value, building it correctly begins with a solid strategy. When that truth is applied to building a data-driven business, it carries even greater importance. This is because creating a data-driven business will involve virtually every sector of a company, regardless of your industry or the type of business you own. This truth is driven primarily by the number of working parts and aspects of the business that are involved. Some of the most common considerations include the following:

Data

Storage

Employees

Processes

Existing APIs

The goal of building a data-driven business is to benefit from the tools of technology that allow companies to leverage data. With a solid data and analytics strategy, data becomes more than information that guides decision-makers. It also transforms into a company asset.

Creating and defining a successful strategy should include all data sources and analytical tools (including APIs) that connect all common databases, file storage systems, and third-party APIs that your business uses. Using a single platform, DreamFactory helps data-driven businesses achieve their business objectives and solve problems just like these.

2. Integrating and Implementing the Data and Analytics Strategy

The obvious next step in creating a data-driven business is implementing and integrating your data and analytics strategy. Using options such as the REST API will not only offer you immediate benefits but will also allow you to use customization if you need to tweak one or more API endpoints or accommodate specialized processes.

Being able to implement a data-driven business strategy smoothly, and to integrate the new tools with existing systems and APIs, is often the greatest challenge in creating this type of business. Companies that can't afford to interrupt normal business operations, or more importantly customers, need more seamless and smooth transitions. Reach out to the DreamFactory team today to learn more about resources like the DreamFactory scripting feature. This tool allows easy coding to customize areas like input values and other parameters.

3. Employing the Power of Analytics and Reporting Tools

With every business using any number of APIs, it only makes sense to get the most out of the data and information they offer. That is also where the value of reporting tools shines. The main benefits of these reporting tools include the following:

Ease of communicating data and big data

Ability to make better-informed decisions

Ability to reveal data patterns, trends, and abnormalities

Insight to make faster and better decisions

Improved accuracy and quality resulting from combined data sets

With DreamFactory's popular ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, and Kibana) for logging and reporting on API traffic, this type of information, insight, and more are availed. Kibana provides flexible reporting on all API calls with pre-configured dashboards. This also allows for more definitive information based on criteria like application segmented by instance and API endpoints.

4. Responding to the Information Revealed by the Data

After creating and implementing a good data and analytics strategy, and following the ensuing reports, it is time to act. The impact and benefits of employing a data-driven business should be experienced sooner than later. That, however, is only the first step in helping your data oriented business succeed.

The good news is that the data-driven business model never stops availing data, information, and insights that can lead to improvement. With the right tools, like the aforementioned ELK, you can gather, manage, and visualize large amounts of data.

Build a Data Driven Business with DreamFactory

With DreamFactory's REST API options, your company can also make the necessary updates and respond to the information revealed by the data. Instant API creation means being able to focus on creating applications without the time, cost, and effort that hand coding requires. DreamFactory's instant API creation is especially useful for businesses seeking to expand or working on new development projects.

Start your free 14-day free trial with DreamFactory to discover how a top API platform can improve your data-driven decisions.