TO be successful in this digital-first world requires organisations to change and to have effective data management.

       Twenty twenty-two is the year when data leaders will start moving beyond data integration to data intelligence, but there is one big barrier that chief data officers (CDOs) must plan for and overcome: data fragmentation.

       Data fragmentation emerged as a key topic in the IDC Global Chief Data Officer (CDO) Engagement Survey 2021, sponsored by Informatica, which surveyed nearly 900 data leaders around the globe.

       Highlights from the report include:

       > The complexity of data is a pervasive problem across data, technology, process and people.

       > Data fragmentation and complexity divert data leadership away from innovation and increase risk.

       > The way in which organisations resolve fragmentation and complexity issues separates leaders from laggards.

       > Leaders are achieving more than twice the business value from data.

       > Key resolutions are standardisation, automation, centralisation and allocation.

       In short, data leaders are digital leaders.

       What makes an organisation digital-first?

       Digital-first applies to any company, government, or person that is always asking: “Is there some digital-based capability or enhancement that could improve our lives and desired outcomes?”

       According to the report, it requires business change as 98% of organisations surveyed are on a digital transformation journey. Hence, data management is critical to digital transformation.

       Surveyed organisations with strong data leadership are three times more likely to be well underway with digital transformation.

       Two-thirds of the organisations surveyed regularly use multiple clouds, and nearly 80% store more than half of their data in hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.

       The greater the volume of data spread across multiple clouds, the more difficult it becomes to discover, manage, and control that data.

       Organisations face data fragmentation and complexity as the amount of data sources increases, leading to a spike in management overhead and a decline in efficiency. According to the survey:

       > Only 6% of organisations have been able to reduce technical debt by standardising across all data management functions.

       > 40% of organisations haven’t been able to automate any process – lack of automation impacts the ability to scale data management.

       How data fragmentation and complexity impact innovation and increase risk

       According to the survey:

       > Less than a third of organisations have been able to fully operationalise artificial intelligence (AI) into organisational activities.

       > Innovating with data starts with enabling data access, yet only 31% of organisations provide self-service access to all the data needed by different teams.

       > Because organisations are accountable for the data they collect and use, increasing fragmentation and complexity increase liability.

       > A full 61% of organisations struggle to assure data security, and 54% are challenged with assuring data and analytics compliance.

       Organisations’ maturity levels range from reactive to optimised

       In the survey, data leadership maturity was measured by aggregating responses to questions about the current state of data, data technology, organisation, and architecture. Four levels of maturity emerged:

       > Reactive organisations are impacted the most by fragmentation and complexity (25% of digital leaders were at the reactive level)

       > Opportunistic organisations are more proactive but are not repeating success in complex environments (35% of digital leaders were at the opportunistic level)

       > Repeatable organisations are successful in leveraging data, but fragmentation inhibits progress (56% of digital leaders were at the repeatable level)

       > Optimised organisations are the most mature in how fragmentation and complexity are managed (79% of digital leaders were at the optimised level)

       With digital leadership maturity measured by where each organisation is on its digital transformation journey, digital leaders are either well underway or at the end of the journey.

       Optimised data organisations are resolving data fragmentation and complexity issue across the dimensions of data, technology, and people to drive higher business value from their data.

       Ultimately, data organisations that are optimised have more “value” oriented objectives and are better at setting objectives that address fragmentation and complexity compared to reactive organisations.

       Informatica is powering the Star Media Group’s #digitalXdata 2022 CxO Virtual Dialogue, “Driving Business Value from Data in the Cloud,” on Feb 24.

       The event will feature senior business leaders who will be discussing the way to truly harness the value of data to drive business forward.

       For further inquiries, contact events@thestar.com.my

       This article is based on the IDC 2021 CDO study, “Driving Business Value from Data in the Face of Fragmentation and Complexity (Infa.media/3rKDu25).”