Data and analytics have emerged as the key drivers of enterprise success in the digital age. As speed and agility become critical in how enterprise leaders manage uncertainty and disruption, a solid data-driven strategy is essential to stay ahead of the competition. And those that set the foundation early on – one that harnesses the power of data, technology, and AI – are in the best position to weather any storm.
Teams can forecast new trends, adjust to the shifting business environment, and create resilient processes with the help of advanced analytics. Enterprise leaders are already using data and analytics to improve decision-making, bolster supply chain operations, minimize waste, and enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives – to name a few examples.
Despite these benefits, most organizations struggle to tap into their treasure trove of data.
According to research by Corinium Global Intelligence in partnership with Genpact, only 8% of the surveyed executives said they have fully integrated data and advanced analytics into their business processes. In comparison, 21% said they use data to make decisions consistently, and only 9% described their cloud migrations as complete.
Exploring data and analytics adoption
To probe the reasons behind this trend, research by Corinium identifies four levels of data-driven maturity among enterprises:
Analytics innovators are enterprise leaders who understand the value of quickly generating insights and have embedded data and analytics across processes. Leaders in this group have secured executive support by consistently delivering better employee and customer experiences, ultimately driving competitive advantage for their firms.
Unfortunately, most organizations need to catch up to innovator status. Over half of the enterprise leaders we surveyed are data beginners or partial adopters, meaning they’re still in the earliest data and analytics integration stages.
In this article, we’ll explore what makes analytics innovators stand out and how they’re leading the way toward transforming enterprises into data-driven powerhouses.
Seek business and technology alignment
Business and technology leaders must collaborate to create a data-driven enterprise. However, getting executive support for data-driven innovation and business transformation is one of the most common challenges.
To solve this problem, analytics innovators focus on connecting data, technology, and cloud strategies with business objectives. They also empower employees by democratizing access to data, which further helps them prove the value of their initiatives.
In other words, they closely align their technology strategy with the business needs.
Focus on company culture
Data is an integral component of every function, and all employees should have access to the resources they need to unlock its power. Even better, data-driven insights should be visible throughout the organization so everyone can consume and act on that information.
Increasingly, building a data-driven culture is a top priority for most organizations. And for enterprises to be truly data-driven, all employees must understand the importance of cloud-enabled analytics and how to embrace them.
Analytics innovators always pay attention to the people at the heart of their digital transformation efforts. They know the biggest challenge in accelerating technological change is not the tech but creating a culture where data, analytics, and cloud are everyone’s priorities.
Enhance data fluidity
From the interns to the CEO – focusing on data literacy is the only way to turn data into actionable insight across an enterprise. According to Corinium’s report, almost 38% of analytics innovators invest heavily in establishing master datasets for business-critical functions, enabling teams to create reports or analyze data on demand. In contrast, only 17% of partial adopters invest in master datasets to streamline business processes.
Ultimately, the goal is to integrate data across business units and make it more manageable, accessible, and actionable. At Genpact, for example, our data experts use PowerMe, a data intelligence platform that allows cross-functional teams to discover, trace, and trust their data to make decisions confidently.
This approach is one way of equipping employees to make safe data-driven decisions in the presence of comprehensive data governance and literacy policies.
Transforming into a data-driven enterprise
Recent events have highlighted how crucial it is to use data and analytics to improve resilience and speed. Moreover, they’ve revealed the strategic benefits of how a solid data-driven strategy in business can positively impact operations, products, services, stakeholders, and customers for years to come.
In our view, there has never been a better time to act and build robust and sustainable business practices that can support your workforce’s efforts to thrive in the new normal – with data at the helm.
(The author is Amaresh Tripathy, Genpact’s global analytics leader and Vikrant Karnik, Genpact’s global business leader of cloud and technology services, and the views expressed in this article are their own)
