Data moments

Re-understand our data

Yunus Al Nasser

October 15, 2020

One of the most important global challenges in achieving the maximum value from data is related to employing it in smart decision-making, which is a multi-level and multi-faceted challenge.

Therefore, in these "data moments", I wanted to discuss the relationship of institutions over time to their data in several ways, namely the process of preserving them, processing them, and finally the opportunities to employ them in an intelligent decision.

And if we remembered the preservation process: it used to be that saving the data for documentation in the first place and refer to it when necessary, or saving the data in a cumulative manner is not for a purpose, but because we will need it on some day that may or may not come, and often the traditional method of preservation was not possible. Opportunities for easy access to specific data, and this method does not allow the decision maker to employ the data in any urgent decision based on live, real-time data.

As for dealing with this huge amount of institutional data stored over the years, the relationship of institutions to their analysis and benefit from them is seasonal, and here I mean that it is customary to wait for monthly, quarterly or annual reports to assess the status quo in the areas of work of institutions and to conclude opportunities for development and upgrading performance.

But the post-"Covid-19" era that we are living in today can no longer afford to wait. If institutions wait a month or more to look at their data, the decision will often be, and if it is correct, not the best, because the data surrounding the decision-making on the ground will have changed, even partially.

And as we say in the Emirati proverb, "birds fly with their livelihoods" if we wait for a period of time, whatever it is, to prepare specific data for building a decision on it, which makes the smart, real-time dashboards the right arm of the decision maker in the era of digital transformation.

The role of data in other countries may not be clear-cut yet, but in the Emirates we are fortunate that the leadership vision was and still is clear in destination and objectives, even future and long-term ones, even before the concept of data matures in the world and the region and has this role and strategic importance and it is related to many Of hopes.

The UAE ranks among the top countries in the club in many fields, which is reflected in the achievement announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, that the country ranked first in the world in 121 indicators among the most important competitiveness reports Globalism.

Therefore, with the efforts made, over the past decades, to achieve all this competitiveness, the added value of data is to enable us to have instant access to read the circumstances surrounding any decision, and to achieve this within a record time, we need to move from the method of relying on the monthly or quarterly periodic reports and others. To the method of relying on live data and linking it to smart panels that support smart decision-making, and allow decision-makers to have first-hand knowledge of the performance in their organizations and sectors.

The difference is that any decision we may take after waiting for a month or more will be far from the real facts on the ground, so the chances of the decision’s effectiveness and impact are reduced.

The difference between planning based on live data and planning based on cumulative time-spaced data is that living offers an infinite number of options and scenarios that are closest to our needs in reality, and even in increasing the decision-maker’s ability to choose between one decision and another and choose the best, while decisions and plans based on the second type No matter how satisfactory its employment results, its shelf life is shorter.

What do you think of the chance that your data will be part of the strategic features of the future, as our leadership wants?

Assistant General Manager of Smart Dubai, Executive Director of Dubai Data Corporation

To read the previous articles of the writer please click on its name .

"The added value of the data is in enabling us to have instant access to read the circumstances surrounding any decision."