Turbulence ahead -- why businesses are still falling short when it comes to data

While nearly everyone knows that data is important, almost no one is able to use it to its full potential. Each and every organization is generating and using data in daily operations but 98 percent of our recent Data Health Barometer survey cohorts in the UK admitted that their organizations are dealing with challenges in using data effectively. Nearly half say it's not easy to use data to drive business impact at all, which is even worse as we head into a period of potential UK-wide economic uncertainty.

The most significant questions for data professionals are whether they have full visibility of all data that is available across their business to help them make reliable decisions according to that data; an understanding of how exactly the data is relevant to the company overall but also to their own individual role in the business; if they know how to use that data to its full potential in an ever-growing competitive business marketplace and have access to the data they need in real-time, wherever it may be.

Opening data up to all-access brings with it concerns around maintaining quality, security, agility and literacy. Indeed, to meet the UK government’s goals of  'a data-driven economy and data-rich lives' as part of its  National Data Strategy (NDS), 'foundational data literacy will be required by all'.

The NDS is an ambitious, pro-growth strategy that aims to drive the UK in building a world-leading data-driven economy where people, businesses and organizations trust the data ecosystem, are sufficiently skilled to operate effectively within it, and can get access to data when they need it.

Over in the private sector, data access platforms like social media and the ever-increasing evolution and adoption of new technologies like the Internet of Things mean that data is being produced like never before.

At the same time, the introduction of lower-cost options such as cloud for collection, storage and processing has made this data a rich raw material to create new opportunities for business growth. However, our Data Health Barometer survey revealed healthy data is still far from the norm.

Data challenges are adversely affecting data health

So how can organizations unlock the power of data and use business insights for a positive impact on their profits and future economy? First, we should look at the data challenges and understand why overall data health is failing.

While nearly everyone knows that data is crucial for business success (99 percent), almost no one is able to use it to its full potential. 98 percent of UK respondents admitted that their organizations are dealing with challenges in using data effectively and nearly 1 in 2 companies (46 percent) claim that their data doesn't yet have the speed and flexibility needed to satisfy business demands. There is a significant gap in perception between leaders and experts when it comes to how well data supports their business and its key objectives: 68 percent of data leaders say it’s easy to use data to drive business impact, while only 54 percent of data experts agree -- a difference of 14 points.

That means nearly half (46 percent) of the data experts say it’s not easy to use data to drive business impact and a full one-third (33 percent) of business leaders and data professionals say that not everyone in their company understands the data they work with. 43 percent of business roadmaps still have making real-time data available to all employees as planned but not yet implemented and only 65 percent of the organizations have some kind of data literacy program in place.

Overall, there has been a 10-point drop since last year’s survey in how data experts and business leaders rate their ability to deliver on data timeliness, accuracy, consistency, accessibility and completeness. The most significant change was in timeliness, with only 77 percent rating ability to deliver up-to-date data as "very good" or "somewhat good" vs. 95 percent in 2021.

With strong economic headwinds, this downward trend in data health could not have come at a worse time.

While 85 percent of respondents believe the data they work with, nearly one-third are concerned about the level of data literacy and understanding across the rest of the business. And this concern was highlighted in the survey revealing gaps in agility and accessibility. 21 percent of those surveyed reported that they do not have quick access to the data they need, yet 40 percent of data users would prefer to rely on getting the data they need themselves than having to rely on the data team or IT for it.

Unlocking the true power of data

Now more than ever, organizations must be ready to adapt to changing conditions -- and that requires data agility. Agile businesses have the speed and flexibility to satisfy their data demands quickly, reliably, and at scale. This year, we found that companies are falling short of their need for fast access to trusted data.

COVID-19 made remote work an immediate priority, but for many, the data infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with new working styles. 57 percent of companies report that remote working has had a negative impact on their data agility and around a quarter of companies (23 percent) are concerned about how prepared they are for new data security and privacy regulations -- roughly the same proportion that report issues around access and protection of sensitive data (29 percent).

Successful organizations fully use available data to innovate. The majority of organizations are missing key opportunities to extract measurable value from their data. Less than half (48 percent) are currently using data to develop new products and services, and only 37 percent of companies have figured out how to monetize their data.

In data and digital transformation projects, schedule issues and a lack of skills are hampering companies’ success, not technology or budget concerns. The main success factor within digital transformations is on the people side of the equation where businesses need more skilled team members and time. Currently, data professionals cite not having enough people with the requisite skills (28 percent) as a joint first challenge to data and transformational projects along with not having enough time to execute them (28 percent).

While this seems to suggest that data and transformational projects may be less of a priority for businesses, at the same time the importance for organizations to bring their employees along on the data journey is underlined and growing in recognition as a key to sustained business success. Driving greater data literacy, creating an organization-wide data culture and meeting the needs for more data agility are crucial levers for companies of all sizes to succeed, which is why data training is one of the best-kept secrets in enterprise.

Create a data-centric culture focused on data health

Upskilling your business’ employees to set your company up for success is just one element though as every business going forward should also switch their focus to maximizing data initiatives to get even more value from their investment.

Corporate data is no longer a collection of assets that people share with particular tools; it’s a living thing that requires care and feeding, a common language, and common understanding. Everyone who works with data needs to have the context to understand the data itself and its value to the business, and shares responsibility for maintaining the visibility and reliability of that data.

Image credit: ml12nan/depositphotos.com

Felipe Henao Brand is senior product manager, Talend.