Data-driven organizations don’t stop with their data. If decisions are based on data, and more data is preferable to less, then all data (that’s verifiable) is fair game. Business intelligence and analytics solutions offer the opportunity to base your decisions on data that’s available right now, but may not be tomorrow. That data can still be valuable, but it's fleeting nature makes it hard to capture and analyze.
And it’s important for data-driven organizations to take some time now and then to play with all of that data they’ve gathered: the ERP-based data, the one-off spreadsheets and information, and the truly external data. Poke at it, manipulate it, and see what you can learn.
You never know when you’ll stumble onto an observation that can lead you to the decision that earns your company an extra million dollars. That’s data-driven decision-making, and that’s how datadriven organizations work.