How Australian organizations measure up for data maturity
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Data and Analytics
Harness the Power of Data and Analytics for better Business Outcomes
Highlights
- As enterprises gain data maturity, analytics’ role in business growth increases.
- A research team at Deakin University, Deakin Business School conducted a study on digital intelligence of Australian organizations with Tata Consultancy Services as their knowledge partner.
- Our data and analytics target operating model framework TCS Datom™ was used as the guideline for self-assessment of data maturity levels.
- The study found that instilling a data democratization culture and higher data maturity levels accelerates business outcomes.
In this article
Championing data maturity
Data maturity goes hand in hand with enterprise revenue growth—achieved through a focus shift from the abundance of data to its democratization.
The importance of robust data and analytics frameworks has made its way into boardrooms with leaders looking for better sources to harness data from their ecosystem. This includes partners, suppliers, and customers as well as open data sources to glean actionable insights. This allows enterprises to reinforce their relevance and drive better revenue growth by improving their data and analytics maturity.
At another level, data democratization empowers users and propels transformative organizations towards higher levels of data maturity. As an organization goes up the data and analytics maturity curve, the extent to which analytics contributes to its business performance (net income) also increases. Data analytics positively impacts an organization’s ability to create new business models and respond to market dynamics as well as mass-customize their products and services.
To understand the relationship between data maturity and an organization’s growth, TCS teamed up with Deakin University in Australia to study the level of data maturity and its impact on the bottom line.
Key findings of the study
The study focused on discovering the data maturity journey of organizations across industries.
The Deakin University study covered 138 organizations across 18 industries and was conducted in 2022. It found that Australian organizations self-reported medium to high levels of data maturity. A healthy 66% of the respondents rated themselves as effective in data sharing and beyond.
The pandemic reinforced the role of data and analytics in an organization’s survival and performance. 95% of the respondents agreed that data and analytics had a higher impact on strategic decision-making coming out of the pandemic.
A value-driven maturity journey, inclusive data and analytics culture, and a balanced data governance approach were found to be key elements in leveraging data and analytics for business gains.
Figure 1: Statistics on whether data and analytics were instrumental in decision-making during the pandemic.
...the ‘people’ should be taken on the data journey, and this many-a-times requires people playing with data getting out of their offices and interacting (and understanding) with representatives from different parts of the business.”
Recommendations
The experiences and practices shared by research participants produced numerous recommendations that we have split into three major categories.
Set course for a business-driven data and analytics maturity journey
An effective data-driven strategy is one that is informed of the overall business strategy, business needs and relevance to all stakeholders within the organization. It presents a clear and justified path with defined resources necessary to satisfy the identified requirements.
Adopt an inclusive data and analytics culture
An inclusive and educative organization-wide data and analytics culture is a critical component to ensure that data and analytics maturity levels are achieved with maximum business value and acceptance.
Preserve a balanced data and analytics governance
The key to a successful data and analytics maturity journey is finding the perfect balance between data governance, technology investment, and stakeholder management.
An inclusive organization-wide data and analytics culture is critical to ensure data and analytics maturity levels are achieved with maximum business value and acceptance.
Stats of the study
The Netherlands learnings
In both the TCS studies—in the Netherlands and Australia—the key takeaway was that data maturity requires a data-driven mindset and data democratization across the board.
Much like the Deakin study on data maturity in Australian organizations, the High Performance Data Organization (HPDO) survey delved into assessing and benchmarking organizations in the Netherlands. To get a better perspective on how ‘data mature’ Dutch organizations are, TCS under the aegis of Datom Indus Program, partnered with Tilburg University/TIAS Business School and ICT Media in commissioning a research study.
The study revealed that the data and analytics maturity in the surveyed organizations in the Netherlands was slightly higher than the global average. We found that truly high performing data-driven organizations have made data and analytics a high priority at the board level. They invest in improving their data centricity, literacy, and governance while also streamlining processes that break barriers to accessible data.
