Business transformation: it’s all anybody’s talking about. With so much noise, we know it’s hard to tell who is an authoritative source. Which perspectives really matter?
Our customers use automation technology to operationalize more data workloads than ever before. They keep up to date on the industry by reading tips and advice on our blog (hint: you can, too!). But, we know we’re not the only ones with something valuable to say.
Here, we’ve gathered this list of highly credible blogs about data-driven business transformation, written by experienced thought leaders and organizations with skin in the game.
Search by category
- Business transformation
- Decision-making and change management
- Marketing, sales and customer relations
- Human resources
- Visualization and reporting
- Blogs by industry
Business transformation
These blogs discuss business transformation on a broad level and the role data has to play in that development. They’re an excellent place to start.
McKinsey Digital
This blog isn’t updated as often as some – about once a month – but when McKinsey Digital does publish, you can expect a high quality piece written by one or more analytics experts and business leaders.
Forrester
You don’t get much more reputable than Forrester, whose advice on the existing and potential impact of technology on business is trusted by millions. This blog is a hive of activity, with a mix of quick reads and in-depth, specialist reports.
CIO
The CIO (from IDG) site is packed with articles on digital transformation and the relationship between IT and business operations. Data strategy and the democratization of analytics are key themes throughout, but the blog touches on the human side of business transformation as well.
DZone
DZone is a contributor site and technical library with over one million members. All submitted articles are vetted before publication by their editorial team, so although you might want to bear in mind their content comes from a range of sources, there are plenty of expertly written posts on topics like Big Data, security and IoT.
Digital Pulse by PwC
Coining the phrase ‘digital transcendence’, this blog by PwC offers both practical insights and data-driven predictions to the reader, all with a view to elevating the capabilities of digital businesses.
Decision-making and change management
At the top level, leaders are in charge of establishing a vision for their organization and implementing the goals for change. Here are insights from these key decision-makers and people in the know about change management.
Dataversity
The appeal behind Dataversity’s blog is that, as an established name in the industry, it’s a great source of practical materials for tech and business professionals. This wealth of experience is broken down by subject for easy perusing, so try here for blogs about Data Architecture or here for discussions on Governance.
DBTA
Similar to Dataversity, DBTA aggregates news, content and research around topics like data integration, virtualization and analytics. Blogs are available on their site and in-depth articles can be found in their magazine.
OrgDev
This is a fairly new, but well-written organizational development blog delivered right to your inbox as a regular newsletter. If you’re a fan of the Morning Brew format, then you’ll like this.
Predictive Analytics World
The founder of Predictive Analytics World, Eric Siegel, has his own blog all about machine learning and the ways businesses are using AI to drive real change. He interviews C-suite execs and analytics experts. His blog has been running for over 12 years.
OECG
OECG’s blog covers the broader topics of governance, risk management and compliance. As a non-profit think tank, their articles come from a teaching and training perspective and are motivated by those principles. You can sign up for a free membership to gain access to further resources as well.
Marketing, sales and customer relations
Transformational business change is not just an internal process. It can come from the public facing side of your organization, too. So, what do marketers and salespeople have to say?
Hubspot
From sales to marketing to business development, the Hubspot blog is a top-tier example of data-driven blogging. It contains deep-dives on their own analytics and how the company used that information to make changes and is recommended by industry leaders like Neil Patel.
Articulate
Articulate’s blog is over 15 years in the making and documents insights on business and marketing, with reputable sourcing and reports on in-house findings.
The Moz blog
The people at Moz offer SEO tools and services for marketers, and their blog, along with the famous Whiteboard Fridays, is where they share free information on all the ways that data impacts content creation.
Human resources
These HR-focused blogs really get into the details of what business transformation means for employees, training, recruitment, processes and policies.
re:Work with Google
Here is Google’s own practical ideas and data-driven research around HR. This blog covers both the inner workings of this company as well as case studies from other businesses.
David Green
Although still very active on Twitter and LinkedIn, at the time of writing his blog hasn’t seen much updating over 2019 – saying that, there’s a lot of valuable information on there about trends in HR, and is worth a read.
Turbine
The Turbine blog covers topics around people management, finance, technology and business processes, and always uses authoritative sources.
Visualization and reporting
Data visualization is more than just graphs and charts. What really matters is finding the story that ties all those numbers together – and that’s exactly what these blogs are all about.
DataBox
When it comes to the topics of visualizing data and integrating data sources for marketing purposes, DataBox’s blog has you covered.
Tableau
Get Tableau’s 2020 data trends report here. Their blogs often cover interesting subjects for data visualization, like visualizing every street in San Francisco or fighting poverty with data. They update several times a week, so are a great staple for the morning commute.
Information is Beautiful
Enticing illustrations aren’t always a sign of quality, but they help. Information is Beautiful was founded by David McCandless, author of two bestselling books and an authority on data visualization. You don’t have to trust our word for it, either – they have a big spreadsheet.
Visualizing data
The award-winning site by Andy Kirk offers a ‘reporting from the front-lines’ feel. Like any great journalist, he’s on the ground, asking questions and participating in the conversation.
Storytelling with data
Storytelling with Data gets to the heart of why data reporting matters. In the blog, you can find the stories behind the company’s visualization efforts and deep-dives into some of the data from published books and projects. There’s also a podcast if you prefer audio blogs.
Blogs by industry
Read around your subject to gain a fresh perspective. Take a look at these industry blogs to see how they’re approaching data-driven business transformation.
Agriculture - CGIAR
Bringing you the latest Big Data in agriculture news, this blog discusses tooling, the impact of climate change, supply lines and organizational structure.
Manufacturing - Tulip
What can we learn about business transformation from smart factories and the use of IoT in the manufacturing industry?
Infrastructure – Institution of Civil Engineers
This blog covers topics like building information modelling (BIM) and the creation of the ‘digital twin’ for building design and development, and the business process changes that are behind successful implementation of these technological advancements.
Transport - DAT
DAT’s blog is specifically looking at freight and rail transportation of goods. This is an industry poised for transformation with the advent of autonomous or assisted driving.
Commerce – Intelligence Node
With a data analytics slant, this blog is tailored for retailers in B2C brick and mortar shops, fully ecommerce or somewhere in between, but is useful for B2B businesses as well.
Hospitality – Oracle Food and Beverage blog
Though this blog covers a range of topics within the hospitality sector, they have a comprehensive section on data and analytics in restaurant businesses.
Education – DonorsChoose Data
Here, this blog asks how is data being used to transform our education system? Are there patterns in this information that could migrate to the working world?
Media – Stephen Follows’ Film Data blog
Stephen, a well-known data researcher and industry consultant, runs a blog all about developments in the film and television sector, from a data-driven perspective.
Health – LexisNexis: the DNA of Healthcare
This blog is by risk management data analytics provider, LexisNexis, and is focused on healthcare, security and storage solutions for sensitive information. There’s also a range of blog categories by sector, so these blogs are worth exploring if you’re looking for information about business transformation in regulated industries.
So, what’s next? We recommend using these links and other authoritative sources to carefully curate your own blog feed (use tools like Feedly).
Then, make time in your schedule – even just half an hour a week – to read through articles that could impact your decisions moving forward.
(Thank you to the providers of the above blogs for images and screenshots.)
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