The experience is common. Anyone who relies on accurate information to make decisions knows the gnawing uncertainty that arises when the data doesn’t agree.
A situation where three beautifully crafted dashboards, equally trusted by the owning team members, all tell a different story. Worse still, multiple reports disagree, and the engineers themselves are less than certain that what is reported represents the business accurately. In these moments, far from isolated events, trust in the foundational business data erodes.
The trend is to believe that more development or better tooling can rid the business of this plague of discrepancy. The root of the issue is far simpler and far more fundamental. At Symphony, we believe the problem lies in business definitions, not tools.
Why More Tools Won’t Fix It
The state of the industry, broadly categorized as “Information Technology,” but practically “the data that drives your daily business,” has become bloated with countless platforms, BI solutions, and sales teams confidently claiming their technology will bring resolution. The reality is that most of these technologies perform the same function in different fonts and colors.
As a business grows to adopt multiple technologies, the outputs of answers and analytics naturally begin to drift from the source. This leads to the problem we opened with above.
At Symphony we believe the most reliable, revenue-centric method of ensuring that all the analytics in a company are consistent is by performing the necessary work of centralizing business definitions and logic. We like to think of it as the rulebook to which all “technologies” must abide. In so doing, code, procedures, and calculations can all be vetted for integrity against the definitions of metrics and measures established at the core of the business.
A Case in Point
To put this in perspective, we serviced a large financial services company that was seeing wildly different revenue numbers over a 3-month period. At minimum, dollar values were differing in the hundreds of thousands.
By the time Symphony engaged the client, they had already undergone two full data architecture rebuilds. First on Databricks, then on Snowflake. The numbers still did not align. Every individual we spoke to was frustrated and exasperated. No one knew what to do.
The answer, after a dedicated period of discovery with the client, manifested in an ambiguous definition of what constitutes “active customers.” Marketing, finance, operations, and the executive team, even discussing the subject on a call together, could not align on what the true definition was. As a result, the tools and technologies suffered. In a sense, dashboards could never be wrong because there was no “true” definition by which to judge. Everyone was operating on gut instinct when attempting to validate the numbers.
The Real Cost of Undefined Terms
If that same client were to invest in better reporting tools, AI technologies, or in an act of insanity decide to rearchitect the platform a third time, the results would always be the same. Effective tools are meant to enhance the available data of a business. But when a shared understanding of that data is misaligned at the core, no enhancement will cure the problem.
This is why we at Symphony stand by the belief that not every data problem is a technology problem. Truthfully, there is a balance required to holistically engage a business, solving issues related to both the tools and the individuals who use them.
Finding the Path Back to Alignment
Messy data and problematic reporting does not manifest overnight. It comes through the gradual degradation of a single source of truth, a slow drifting away from what were once simple questions to something much more complex and in need of strict oversight.
Data ecosystems are, in a sense, wild animals. They need oversight, taming, and grounded expectations of behavior. When purposed in the right environment, a strong design can be a massive accelerator to the goals of a business.
Our recommendation has always been to first seek to understand the business, then act only when alignment is established. This paves the path to solutions that all parties are excited for and, more importantly, all understand the value of.
The Fundamentals Don’t Change
Tools and technologies are in constant flux. Merely looking at news around AI is bound to make your head spin. But in the chaos, the fundamentals remain the same.
Businesses need answers from their data, but they must be aligned on how to define their answers. Platforms and technologies are robust in their offerings and tooling, but how these are used must be framed by governing rulesets to ensure consistency.
Data is only as good or as bad as an organization allows it to be. At Symphony, we believe reliability, trust, and success with business data needs is far closer at hand than most organizations realize.
Let’s Talk
If you are in need of industry leaders who will patiently and confidently guide your data needs forward, our team at Symphony Data Solutions is eager to be involved.
Our favorite question to ask our partners is: “What business problem keeps you up at night?” Often the answer we get is “I don’t trust my data”. If you resonate with these issues, we look forward to speaking with you soon.