For a company to succeed in today’s business environment, it is crucial to have the ability to leverage data analytics. Despite the availability of advanced technological tools and data solutions, organisations still struggle to become “data-driven truly”. Why? Cultural Challenges.
Struggles that include slow adaptability to new changes, lack of data literacy, and organisational misalignment continue to linger as a significant obstacles for businesses looking to harness the power of data.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. A 2022 survey by NewVantage Partners has shown that companies are starting to invest heavily in critical areas such as data lake solutions (26.3%), data quality and data health (25.3%), Cloud migration (14.8%), and data literacy (12.7%). This indicates that organisations are recognising the importance of cultural transformation when it comes to leveraging the potential of data. In this context, it becomes clear that it’s not just about the technology—it’s about the people.
What can businesses do to overcome these cultural challenges and truly become data-driven?
The answer lies in continuous data literacy—the key to transforming company culture and unlocking the full potential of data analytics.
Being data-driven today entails the capacity to utilise all forms of data—be it structured or unstructured, on-premise or spread across multiple clouds, and whether it’s dynamic or stationary—to inform decision-making that benefits all organisation members. However, 90% of business leaders recognise that the primary barrier to achieving complete digital transformation is the absence of a suitable corporate culture regarding data.
What changes can companies implement to achieve a data-driven culture?
Some fundamental changes business leaders can create within their organisations include defining responsibilities for data processes, embracing the public cloud, and introducing the right tools to empower IT departments and developers.
Defining set responsibilities
In this strategy, teams ask IT to deliver the required data. Organisations instruct close coordination between business units and IT to address this issue, share goals, and establish responsibility for specific data and processes. IT professionals should integrate tools and solutions into the organisation that facilitate centralised data management and governance while allowing for distributed data ownership.
Involving governance and compliance teams
While collaboration is essential, data must adhere to internal and external compliance necessities and acknowledge the constantly evolving privacy regulations. As a result, governance and compliance must be prioritised from the outset of an organisation’s journey to becoming data-driven.
Enterprise platforms must identify which data sets contain sensitive information and offer guidance on their storage, required permissions for access, and how to manage access to ensure only authorised individuals can utilise them at the appropriate time and place. Additionally, the platform should provide information on data lineage and transformations throughout its lifecycle.
Introducing the right tools
Merely formulating a hybrid data-driven capability is not enough for organisations – they require analytics and governance tools to segregate and leverage such a vast amount of data effectively.
Suitable technological tools should support all types of data while simplifying and enabling analytics on data at rest and in motion. Moreover, these tools must also facilitate easy integration with purpose-built services tailored to specific user needs. These tools must enable automation implementation, as it is the only approach for developers and platform users to leverage all available data effectively.
Leveraging the data at your disposal
Prioritising data literacy and cultural transformation within the organisation is a starting point for leveraging data analytics as a business. While technology solutions may play a vital role, it is essential to identify that people are equally important in driving data-driven decision-making. Collaboration between business units and IT and a focus on governance and compliance is also necessary to ensure the organisation’s data is used effectively.
Finally, adopting analytics and governance tools that support all types of data, analytics, and automation implementation is vital to unlocking the full potential of data analytics. By embracing these strategies, businesses can gain a competitive edge and achieve their goals.
