Corporations are generating unprecedented volumes of data, especially in industries such as telecom and financial services industries (FSI). Many organizations are hoping to leverage these massive amounts of data by investing heavily in big data solutions – solutions that they hope can meet business goals such as increasing customer satisfaction, uncovering alternative revenue streams, or improving operational efficiency.
However, not all these organizations will be successful in using data to drive business value and increase profits. Is yours among the organizations hoping to cash in big with a big data solution? Read on to be sure you set yourself up for success.
Fail to plan, plan to fail
Organizations have good reason to believe that adopting data analytics tools and hiring data professionals will allow them to extract the full value of their data. But treating this approach as a silver bullet for their data goals will likely yield subpar results. Some businesses might think they need more data when what they really need is to make full use of the data they already have. Some even have too much data, so much so that the insights are obscured by the sheer volume and speed of the data coming in.
All successful organizations have business strategies in place that help them achieve their objectives. These strategies are usually long-term and include plans and actions on how to reach their goals.
Similarly, data should be treated as a corporate asset with a dedicated long-term strategy that lets the organization store, manage, and utilize its data effectively. As my colleague Wim Stoop previously shared,
“A well-planned enterprise data strategy helps companies get the most of their data, making it known, discoverable, available, trusted, and compliant. It supports business objectives like increasing revenues, improving customer experience, and driving profitability by giving business units and users access to relevant data so they can quickly gain the insight they need. Most importantly, it helps organizations control costs and reduce risks, enforcing consistent security and governance across all enterprise data assets.”
The proof is in the pudding
Cloudera’s global enterprise data maturity research report, created in association with technology market research firm Vanson Bourne, reveals that organizations with mature enterprise data strategies in place for at least 12 months report higher profit growth at an average rate of 5.97%, according to surveyed senior business decision makers.
Ninety-six percent of senior business decision makers reported that the way data is handled and managed has positively impacted their organization’s performance, and close to two-thirds (64%) reported stronger levels of resiliency from the presence of a mature data strategy.
Within Asia Pacific (APAC), telco and FSI have been at the forefront of adopting data analytics to better understand their customers and deliver customized products and services. The report has uncovered customer centricity to be the key priority for both telco and FSI organizations when it comes to using data.
Telecom operators can gain a competitive advantage by leveraging the massive volume of data generated on their networks. They can outperform competitors by applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to understand and optimize the customer experience while aiding service assurance. Sixty three percent of organizations are already using data and analytics to improve customer experience and satisfaction. The next step will be for telecom operators to continue tapping into these customer-centric data sources to develop novel ways of meeting customer needs that ultimately translate to an improved overall experience.
When it comes to FSI, one of the key findings from the report is the importance of risk management and regulatory compliance when it comes to data management. In an industry that is subject to stringent regulatory requirements, it is critical to use data to accurately scale up risk management. Currently, 94% of APAC FSI senior business decision makers see the value of secure, centralized governance over the entire data lifecycle.
Aside from implementing a holistic enterprise data strategy that includes comprehensive data governance, moving to hybrid cloud can help better manage data and support an increasingly mobile workforce, thereby establishing a competitive advantage. This is crucial as over two-fifths (43%) of FSI IT decision makers and almost half (49%) of telco industry IT decision makers across APAC have reported an increase in spend across supporting changing work environments such as hybrid work arrangements.
The way forward is hybrid
Data is now everywhere, which is why a hybrid approach allows a business to maximize its returns from data regardless of whether it sits in public cloud or on-premises environments. A hybrid approach to data is no longer a luxury but a necessity. To succeed, organizations will need a hybrid enterprise data strategy and a hybrid data platform. This does not mean ‘one of each’ – a public cloud data strategy and an on-prem data strategy. Rather, it means a holistic and comprehensive enterprise data strategy, spanning both, supported by a modern data architecture.
An enterprise data strategy will enable your organization with a clear, yet flexible data-driven culture to propel innovation across all levels. With a hybrid data platform, enterprises can drive value with performance and cost efficiency, while fueling growth with speed and control.
For enterprises still on the fence, it is worthwhile to note that FSI has seen a 46% increased spend since the start of the pandemic in supporting digital transformation initiatives such as hybrid multi-cloud architecture, and data and analytics solutions. The telco industry has also increased its spend by 48% on similar initiatives.
Cloudera is well positioned to support organizations in transitioning towards a modern data architecture and implementing an effective enterprise data strategy. The Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) helps organizations harness both structured and unstructured data from various sources at an enterprise scale. In a single pane of glass, CDP provides visibility and transparency on all enterprise data so it can be leveraged across the operating environment for better business outcomes.
For more insights on how an enterprise data strategy affects an organization’s business performance, check out our report “Cloudera Enterprise Data Maturity Report: Identifying the Business Impact of an Enterprise Data Strategy” here: https://www.cloudera.com/campaign/enterprise-data-maturity-research-report.html
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