Data is the new oil. Where are the refineries? Data is a foundational component of digital transformation. Yet, few organizations have invested in the dedicated talent, platforms, and processes needed to turn information into insights. To realize data’s full potential, some businesses are adopting new governance approaches, multitiered data usage and management models, and innovative delivery methods to enable repeatable results and scale. Indeed, they are treating data analysis as a strategic discipline and investing in industrial-grade analytics. Over the past 10 years, data has risen from an operational byproduct to a strategic boardroom concern. Harnessing analytics has led to new approaches to customer engagement;1 the ability to amplify employee skills and intelligence;2 new products, services, and offerings; and even opportunities to explore new business models. In these times of talent scarcity, data scientists continue to be particularly prized—even more today than in 2012, when Harvard Business Review declared the data scientist role the “sexiest of the 21st century.”3 Analytics now dominates IT agendas and spend. In Deloitte’s 2015 global CIO survey, which polled 1,200 IT executives, respondents identified analytics as both a top investment priority and the IT investment that would deliver the greatest business impact. In a similar survey of a broader executive audience, 59 percent of participants either included data and analytics among the top five issues or considered it the single most important way to achieve a competitive advantage.4 Advances in distributed data architecture, in-memory processing, machine learning, visualization, natural language processing, and cognitive analytics have unleashed powerful tools that can answer questions and identify valuable patterns and insights that would have seemed unimaginable only a few years ago. Perhaps Ann Winblad, senior partner at technology venture capital firm Hummer-Winblad, said it best: “Data is the new oil.”5 Against this backdrop, it seems almost illogical that few companies are currently making the investments needed to harness data and analytics at scale. Where we should be seeing systemic capabilities, sustained programs, and focused innovation efforts, we see instead one-off studies, toe-in-thewater projects, and exploratory investments. While they may serve as starting points, such circumscribed efforts will likely not help companies effectively confront daunting challenges around master data, stewardship, and governance.
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