Revamping Data Management: Big data proves catalyst to updating data management strategies

This is evident in the jump in the number of organizations with plans to upgrade data management (64 percent in 2014 vs. 57 percent in 2012). At the same time, IT has an increased level of responsibility for data management—a 15 percent increase in two years—signifying the ongoing evolution of the CIO’s role within the enterprise.

“People see the CIO as more than just someone who keeps the lights on in the IT department,” says Buff. “CIOs are considered key business leaders today—not just leading the selection and management of technology, but driving the business forward via technology. CIOs are pointing to the need to align business and IT.”

Obstacle AwarenessWhen comparing 2012 numbers to 2014, it’s immediately clear that many of the same obstacles remain. For instance, people issues such as corporate culture (38 percent in 2014 vs. 29 percent in 2012), lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities (35 percent vs. 30 percent), as well as lack of skills (33 percent vs. 22 percent) have become more prominent pain points. And, the most significant challenge—dealing with complex and numerous data sources—also experienced a noticeable shift upward from 36 percent in 2012 to 42 percent two years later.

For one respondent, an IT leader with a large business services organization, the culture-based obstacles represent a harsh reality. “It is encouraging that people within the enterprise understand the value data represents. They want access to data insights and exhibit

Data management plays a key role in helping organizations make strategic sense of their data and how to best utilize it. IDG Research Services recently conducted a survey asking many of the same questions as one in 2012 to give a clear picture of how organizations are capitalizing on data management today, as well as what challenges and opportunities remain. While it’s obvious that maturity has ushered in clear data goals, many obstacles persist, leading the way to some intriguing gaps. Meanwhile, some compelling evidence reveals that organizations may be rallying to close those gaps.

Environmental AssessmentThere is a very predictable pattern that transpires whenever an exciting and promising technology hits the market. One that often kicks off with rapid hype-inspired growth, lulls when encountering skepticism, and then grows again once the results emerge. Often filled with peaks and valleys, it’s a true pattern of maturity. This year’s IDG Research Services survey, sponsored by SAS, paints an interesting picture of exactly where data management is headed—and what’s potentiallyholding it back.

The numbers show a realistic view of where organizations are in their data journey. It demonstrates that while IT leaders understand the potential, they also realize that in many instances their organizations are not as far along as they once thought they were. According to Anne Buff, a business solutions manager and best practices thought leader for SAS, the survey results also indicate what data is capable of accomplishing within enterprises. “It’s encouraging because today’s enterprises are noticeably stepping away from the shoot, ready, aim approach,” she says. “Instead, they are starting to realize that they need to prepare before they deploy.”

RECENT IDG SURVEY DEMONSTRATES GROWING NEED FOR END-TO-END DATA MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AS ORGANIZATIONS MOBIL IZE AGAINST YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHALLENGES.

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excitement around the potential,” he says. “However, the excitement creates a significant challenge as well. It’s not a matter that we are unable to deliver, but it takes time to get everything in place so it provides meaningful insights. No doubt about it, IT’s role is evolving, but evolution takes time and many users [LOB] lack the patience to give us the time we need to work through the strategy development and technology deployment process.”

People do not give enough credence to the value of data governance, explains Buff. “Internal politics are real and culture trumps everything, but we still tend to use this as an excuse. We don’t take charge and allow for change management,” she says. “We are willing to put the rules in play, but the data governance team referee needs to be there, so that when obstacles arrive there is an active resolution process in place. Those who allow data evolution and governance to build at the same time do not have the same hurdles.”

When asked about obstacles encountered in implementing data management solutions, internal politics remains a consistent challenge. However, the lack of an overarching data management strategy (38 percent vs. 26 percent) and concerns regarding user adoption and training needs (35 percent vs. 25 percent) have both increased significantly since 2012.

According to the business services respondent, his team has been fortunate to have top-down support for the data initiative. “Leadership is constantly encouraging

our mission and continues to invest in the resources [people and tools] we need to succeed,” he says. “It is difficult to find people with the skills needed, so we have been working on training those already in-house, which to date has been successful. However, the biggest challenge is trying to build our strategy while under the gun to deliver.”

Benefits of Strategy DeploymentOne of the most telling research findings is the overwhelming lack of an end-to-end data management strategy, coming in at only 14 percent of respondents. In fact, this may explain why organizations are struggling to dismantle the many obstacles standing in the way of accomplishing data-based objectives.

Putting an end-to-end strategy in place is instrumental in moving forward and growing as an organization, explains Buff. “Having a consistent data strategy clearly outlines what value and purpose data brings to the organization. It also sets the stage for data stewards to communicate its value,” she says. “This precedes data management because it defines what data does for the enterprise as a whole. What expectations do we have from our data? Can we manage to the expectations? We need to ask these initial questions and let the answers drive our strategy. The added bonus is governing to the strategy. And, if you have the technology tools to support this, all the better.”

Having a strategy in place could prove instrumental in helping organizations achieve their primary goals. Cost reduction remains the top objective, cited by just over half of respondents. Increasing revenue (33 percent vs. 24 percent) and customer satisfaction (31 percent vs. 19 percent) have grown in importance since 2012.

“A lot of people are still looking for a silver bullet, and you cannot solve everything with a tool. This is especially

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About SAS

SAS is a global leader in business analytics and data management software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions, SAS focuses on helping businesses improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster.

Data visualization and exploration

Data quality

Data warehousing

Low-cost hardware and storage

Integrating and transforming data or

analytics

None

Big Data’s Role in Data Management AdoptionOver the next 12 months, do you expect the role that Big Data plays in your organization’s adoption of data management solutions to increase, decrease or remain the same?

Source: IDG Research Services

Increase

Decrease

Remain the same

Don’t know

52%

4%

38%

6%

true when deployments lack strategy and alignment to actual needs,” she says. “You cannot (and should not) automate bad business processes. All you get is faster bad business processes. We need to stop looking to technology for the answer. Strategy before deployment is vital.”

The Time is NowAlthough some question whether their organization even has big data, now is the time to use big data to give data management as a whole the limelight it deserves, explains Buff. “Not all organizations have or use big data, but executives are listening to the beckoning call of big data and it resonates as important. Now is the time because the purse strings are loosening and it’s an opportunity to take advantage of investments. Data harnesses power, and when people invest in strategically enabling data, it yields results.”

Simply put, solid data management plays an instrumental role in successfully capitalizing on big data. According to the survey, 52 percent report that big data

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Best Practices for Building the Strategy

There are understandably a number of key components to building a successful strategy, especially one tasked with managing an organization’s approach to data management. Below are a few tips to ensuring successful strategy development.

Understand the business perspective. The main objectives of reducing cost and improving business processes suggest an IT-centric perspective to data management goals. However, when the organization is able to focus on initiatives like decision making and increasing revenue, it represents a significant shift away from IT-centric uses and toward important business strategy objectives. “While it’s difficult to obtain funding for cost reduction, initiatives that generate or increase revenue garner attention and investment dollars,” says SAS’ Buff.

Data Management Pain Points

Source: IDG Research Services

2014

2012

42%36%

38%29%

37%36%

35%30%

33%22%

31%31%

30%27%

28%23%

28%27%

26%18%

25%22%

23%19%

19%21%

16%14%

3%3%

8%12%

Complex and numerous data sources

Corporate culture

Lack of an enterprise-wide, unified view of corporate data

Unclear org. roles/responsibilities for data management

Lack of skills/expertise needed for data management strategy

No formal data governance guidelines are in place

Overlapping or competing data management processes

Inability to perform searches across multiple data silos

Lack of data integration strategy

Lack of cooperation/collaboration between business and IT

Poor or insufficient data quality

Insufficient support for unstructured data

Insufficient/inflexible IT infrastructure in place

Lack of confidence in accuracy of reports

Other

None of these

42%

Best Practices for Building the Strategy cont’d

Leverage collaboration. When IT and lines of business collaborate, it represents a significant opportunity for IT to gain perspective of user needs as well as secure strategy buy-in at the business-user level. This is accomplished through business-user empowerment.

Engage the business user. Only 36 percent of IT and business leaders find their data management tools extremely/very effective in eliminating IT as a bottleneck. That means that all too often, business users can’t access the data they need to generate insight. Employ business-user-focused tools to unshackle IT and give the business self-service access to its data to streamline gleaning value from that data and increasing IT productivity. Using intuitive user interfaces that require less training helps to overcome concerns about training costs and not having the right skills in-house.

Address ownership. As organizations build end-to-end data management strategies, it’s crucial to discuss who owns the data. “Data ownership is often fraught with issues. Turf wars frequently arise due to a lack of common definition and understanding of data ownership throughout the organization,” says Buff. “Outlining the meaning of data ownership and the associated scope of responsibility is a critical element in an organization’s data management strategy. It not only helps create an environment for collaborative decision making within the organization, but also addresses compliance, regulatory, and data privacy mandates.

Apply data governance. It is solid data governance that allows organizations to manage all of their data management pain points. “It is easy to have excuses for shortcomings, but it’s often because we haven’t put a framework around what we want or expect,” she says. “Data governance helps us avoid the situation of hoping problems solve themselves or assuming that technology will bring about the solution. Data governance helps keep the organizational strategy on track.”

Use a phased approach. Don’t try to boil the ocean when implementing a data strategy. A phased approach leveraging existing investments and processes allows early success to create momentum in solving bigger problems in later phases.

has at least some influence over data management needs, strategy, and technology adoption. Reiterating the importance of investing now, only 36 percent find that their data management tools are extremely/very effective in removing IT from being the bottleneck.

Another reason to act now resides in leveraging the noticeable growth in user influence. IT can accomplish this by being proactive in terms of addressing their needs. Sixty percent of respondents report that employees and end users have moderate to significant influence over the adoption of data management solutions; 25 percent of which play a significant role in dictating data management needs, strategy, and technology adoption. End users have the greatest level of influence in organizations where collaboration is high. Specifically, 70 percent report end users have significant or moderate impact.

What’s more, IT is a strong influencer in how organizations address data. This creates an excellent opportunity for IT to become a holistic leader. This is evident in the 66 percent who report excellent or good IT/LOB collaboration. “Beyond the common thought of everyone getting along, collaboration is about IT seamlessly enabling the business to move quickly,” Buff says. “Accomplishing this means developing the data management strategy within the broader context of strategic business initiatives. When the needs of the business become the focus, end-to-end data management strategies can flourish.”

Click here to see more survey results.

To learn more about how an end-to-end data management strategy could help your organization visit, sas.com/data.

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