DataIQ members regularly discuss issues faced when it comes to upskilling, ensuring data literacy and promoting the value of data to the wider business. These issues lead to slow adoption of data-driven approaches and can hamper the ability of businesses to manage data, particularly at a time where data is becoming far more important in decision making.
The latest findings by Talend, a data integration and management specialist, have revealed that the ability for companies to manage data has been declining year-on-year, with many causes identified aligning with DataIQ member experiences. The results, released in Talend’s second annual data health barometer, highlight that 97% of respondents noted facing challenges using data effectively and nearly 50% of respondents stated difficulties using data to drive business impacts.
Of the 900 data leaders surveyed, 65% believe their organisations have a data literacy problem and 74% of respondents do not think wider business staff understand the data they work with or the value of data points. This mirrors recent roundtable discussions by DataIQ members about improving data’s status and highlights the need for upskilling.
Elsewhere, over one-third of companies report problems when it comes to trusting their data quality. Of course, this drastically impacts the effectiveness of being able to use the data and it has been predicted that poor data quality can average $15 million per year in losses. Through improved data literacy and heightened status, data quality becomes stronger across whole organisations.
The strengths of high-quality data and a data-centric culture help businesses prepare for times of change, which many of the respondents are currently preparing for. Respondents ranked increasing revenue (+10 points) and optimising costs (+13 points) at the top of the list for data use – both increasing in priority from last year – but nearly 50% state their data is not rapid or flexible enough to satisfy business demands. Furthermore, 41% claim they do not have fast enough access to the right data, which also highlights the need to ensure data teams are not siloed, possess high levels of communication and are actively working with all areas of the business.
Christal Bemont, chief executive officer at Talend stated: “In the coming years, businesses are only going to become more reliant on data to navigate the challenges of a turbulent economy and an increasingly competitive marketplace. By putting a focus on reliable data – supported by a strong data culture with a focus on agility and trust – businesses can not only weather any storm but come out ahead. Having a healthy data environment in place gives organisations the power to run lean in tough times without sacrificing their long-term strategy.”
If anything, the importance of data is gaining momentum with more and more data teams having a seat at the table for business strategies, which makes it imperative that data teams work quickly to improve their status within organisations and upskill data capabilities. DataIQ members have said that they are finding themselves in situations where the business is asking them for data, rather than the data office pushing data, and this is a trend that shows no sign of slowing down particularly if data use is continuing to grow.
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