We are all familiar with using data in our daily lives. We look at the weather forecast to decide what to wear, we use mapping apps to decide what route to take to get from point A to point B, and we use the Internet to do research on products we are looking to buy. Data is nothing new to us. However, in what has become the year all about the COVID-19 globalpandemic, data has never been more front and center. Data is leading all of our lives right now. The world awaits the outcome of vaccine trials to find out when we will be able to move forward with some sort of normalcy. Data is critical to getting us beyondthis global crisis.

Most of our projects with print businesses revolve around data. We work with print companies either trying to enhance how they use data or trying to embrace data for the first time in a meaningful way. People often think data is just about spreadsheets and charts—it is not. Data is the real-time reality of your company. It is black-and-white fact. You can ignore it. You can dispute it. You should embrace it. Embracing it is what sets print companies apart. It is easy to embrace good results; it can feel like a gut punch to embrace and dissect bad results. You need to remember that every company has bad results sometimes. It is our belief that the most successful companies are ones that treat their data as one of their most trusted assets. They don’t doubt the importance of it nor do they allow for data to be ignored. Running a business based on data in operations, sales and financial areas contributes to a successful operation—businesses without a sound data practice cannot be successful in the long term. They are certainly not scalable.

In fact, businesses that scale without managing and embracing data are susceptible to major operational challenges and failures including financial obstacles that can be difficult to overcome. We see how successful companies use data to make good business decisions that propel them forward. We have seen print companies in 2020 make incredibly strategic (and sometimes very tough) decisions based on solid data that let them act quickly to save their balance sheets. We have also seen companies in 2020 not be able to react quickly enough as they did not have access to trusted data to help guide them. If you are a company that has trusted data at your fingertips, we are guessing that 2020 has been hard but manageable. Making data driven-decisions is powerful. It protects us from making emotional decisions that can send us down a misguided path. If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that reliance on accurate and timely data is critical.