A spotlight on data

“By learning from our data, we can improve operational efficiency, enhance our capabilities, and consistently deliver world-class engineering solutions to our customers”.
Global
Global

As we continue to advance in harnessing data insights and embrace the potential of AI, we caught up with two leaders from our expert data and analytics teams to learn more about how we are leveraging data to drive business growth across IMI.

With a career spanning over 20 years in data and business intelligence, Harj Bains joined IMI in 2022. In her role as Data and Analytics Director for Life Technology, Harj uses data to understand key drivers and underpin strategic and tactical decision making across our three market sectors within Life Technology.

Data and Analytics Director for Automation, Michael Smith, joined IMI in 2021, driving top-line growth, operational efficiency, and enhancing customer experience through the strategic application of advanced analytics and AI technologies.

How does data support business growth?

Harj: Effectively transforming your raw data into valuable information enables and enhances data-driven decision making, helping us make informed choices based on evidence and trends. These insights materialise across the landscape, addressing a range of opportunities such as understanding customer behaviour, preference, selling opportunities, leading to enhanced targeted marketing and product development. 

How has the use of data changed over recent years? 

Michael: Businesses like IMI now have ready access to sophisticated, cloud-based data warehousing, business intelligence, analytics and AI tools. This means that we can use much more data, more rapidly, and more effectively. We can uncover the previously-hidden insights that give us a competitive advantage. 

Strong governance has also become more important than ever for ensuring the responsible use of data.

Harj: Data generation is increasing year on year with usage patterns moving from a desire to a necessity. With technological innovation advancing at pace across the digitalised world we live in there is often an abundance of data available. Leveraging the data gives you the knowledge and power to make your next calculated move. The data drives the knowledge, the knowledge provides the advantage.

What is the most exciting data-led project you have been involved in at IMI?

Harj: There are a range of exciting data-led projects we are currently developing, particularly leveraging Artificial Intelligence. One of the recent projects developed has been ‘Content Generation’ providing sales analysis around the customer, product, location and market. This allows sales teams across the globe enhanced visibility and insights along with predictive capabilities.

Michael: We have been exploring the possibility of creating a multi-purpose Generative AI Chat Bot, specifically for IMI employees. If we can provide a secure, real-time, natural language interface with our company data, there is huge potential for boosting productivity and innovation across the business.

What is it that makes data insights so powerful?

Michael: Teams often follow the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion approach when making decisions. This isn’t necessarily a bad approach but nobody is immune to subjectivity and bias. 

The real power of data is that it can provide objective evidence for decision-making. We are working hard to promote this culture within IMI – by making data and technologies increasingly available, and by supporting our teams to upskill.

How are we currently fostering a data-driven culture by encouraging our people to embrace and leverage data insights in decision making across IMI?

Harj: Developing a data-driven culture is one of the foundational pillars to adoption, acceptance and enhancing business usage of all tools and products developed. Hence, bringing along our people on a data transformational journey is of utmost importance. Firstly, engaging users and communicating a clear concise vision with short term and long term gains helps people to understand the what, why, and benefits. 

We also have a number of communication channels which consist of workshops, video posts, training material and our internal communications platform which help drive user engagement and adoption of insight decision making tools. 

“By learning from our data, we can improve operational efficiency, enhance our capabilities, and consistently deliver world-class engineering solutions to our customers”.
Michael Smith
Data and Analytics Director, Automation