Driving the Data Agenda and Culture
A recent study, produced by Wakefield Research for Alation, details the state of culture and the data analytics agenda for organizations.
The most important finding is that building a data culture has a direct impact on a company’s ability to get or stay ahead of the competition — yet receiving the investment that data leaders say is necessary to do so isn’t guaranteed. This research shows that having a strong data culture is linked to achieving revenue goals; those with a top-tier data culture were more likely to have exceeded their revenue goals in the past 12 months.
The study produced some unexpected results. Most companies have a lot of work still to do to build a data culture. Just 15% qualify as a top-tier data culture using the study’s Data Culture Index (DCI), which ranks a company’s data culture across three disciplines: Data Search & Discovery, Data Literacy and Data Governance.
Part of the problem is that 71% of data leaders are less than very confident that their company’s leadership sees a link between investing in data and analytics and staying ahead of the competition. This points to a C-level strategy gap, in which company leaders pay lip service to the benefits of and the need for increased investment in data and analytics, but don’t prioritize analytics investment or recognize their vulnerability to disruption.
Another surprising result had to do with data maturity. In measuring the maturity of data and analytics, only 10% of organizations attested to having enterprise-wide data initiatives (a similar number reported having data governance initiatives).
What are the business reasons for pursuing data and analytics initiatives? The numbers were split relatively evenly between key business agendas:
Which departments pursue data and analytics the most? The survey found that finance is the top driver of data and analytics, followed by sales, operations and then marketing.
However, the data shows that for boards, the biggest agenda item is revenue growth. That’s true for Jim Russell, CIO and VP for digital strategy and planning, Manhattanville College. “I would say improving CX and institutional efficiency are part of the why for data informed transformation.” To deliver this, businesses need a coherent data and analytics strategy.
Data leaders indicate that investment depends on where an organization sits in its data maturity cycle. Often, improving data maturity starts with end-user training. Key training topics include data literacy, communication skills, data quality and implementing tools.
IT staff skills are also vital, analyst Daniel Kirsch suggests: “Data leaders need to build their data and analytics strategy. It is critical that it starts with a business problem. You can’t build a data strategy without a concrete business need.”
Businesses know they need to use data wisely and strategically.
