How to Ensure You’re Gathering Actionable Data

Assessor checking data on tablet

Every facility collects data. But often, that data is collected by different departments and stored in isolation from other departments. That makes it difficult to ensure that it’s accurate and nearly impossible to gain valuable insights at a company-wide level. Given the scale of data collection in the AEC and CRE industries—which can involve thousands of assets in multiple locations—it’s virtually impossible to limit these tasks to a small team.

That’s why it’s so important to focus on collecting actionable data. That means data that has a purpose, and that can be used to better inform your team and help you make strategic decisions.Here are four ways to ensure that that data you gather is actionable:

Define Your Performance Metrics

In some cases, companies collect insufficient data for each facility. That makes the resulting analysis inaccurate. In other instances, too much irrelevant data is collected—which results in needless hours spent analyzing data points that don’t generate helpful actions.

It’s not just energy consumption or sustainability that is important. There are plenty of metrics to consider: condition, lifecycle, environmental impact, emissions, security, safety, regulatory, compliance, valuation, tax, risk and more. But not every assessment needs to collect all these points.

Start by “reverse engineering” your existing KPIs, benchmarks and management reports. What data are you using in each? This makes it easy to spot data that is static, siloed, obsolete and/or unstructured for use, and to differentiate it from robust data that is well-maintained and accessible.

Before each assessment, think beyond individual data points and consider the bigger picture. What decisions will the assessment help you make? Which metrics will indicate success or challenges to overcome for your organization? The answers to these questions should inform the types of data you are collecting.

Define Your Reporting Requirements

Decisions will benefit an organization most when the reporting requirements are clearly understood and the data flows into a central repository.

When assessments are conducted with a pen and paper, it’s easy to overlook key data points. Make sure you know in advance exactly what data you need to gather, and what format it needs to be in. Facility Condition Assessment Software makes this process foolproof by ensuring that nothing important gets left out. It also means you gather data points in a standardized format no matter who is conducting the assessment.

Ensure That Business Processes Capture Actionable Data

Even today, many facility owners rely on static documents to gather data. There are a number of disadvantages to these traditional systems:

  • They are prone to human error
  • Changing forms is difficult and time-consuming
  • Training people on legacy software is costly
  • It is easy to misplace data

The best software standardizes, centralizes and organizes data, and reduces opportunities for human error. When it’s easy to access the data you need, and there are checks in place to make sure it’s accurate and complete, you can be confident that the resulting reporting will provide the actionable data you need to drive business decisions.

This is especially important for business processes that involve multiple parties. Take a valuation, for instance. The end result requires input from multiple professionals, who may all have their own methods for recording data, and complete their assessments at different times. Several parties may check the same feature, while others may be left out entirely. Software like 4tellTM’s Assessment Solution streamlines this process by having all the data gathered in one place in a standard format, so nothing gets overlooked.

Choose the Correct Tools

The best process is to collect meaningful data and avoid errors while collecting it. You can achieve this by providing your team with the correct tools for condition assessments.

Software like 4tell™’s Facility Condition Assessment Software simplifies the data collection process and makes it more efficient. It converts data into valuable insights, ensuring the optimal performance of assets and lowering costs. It helps you consolidate information from various departments. This not only increases accountability, but other stakeholders also benefit from increased transparency. Look for a reporting tool that has solid BI capabilities as well.

The key to gathering actionable data is to start with accurate reporting. After all, if you can’t measure something, you can’t control it. By helping you collect all the information you need and store it in a centralized database, 4tell enables you to make business decisions with confidence, knowing you have the data you need to back them up.

Photo: Khakimullin Aleksandr / Shutterstock, Inc.