What do organisations need to invest in to develop a strong data culture?

While organisational culture can accelerate the application of data analytics, amplify its power, and steer companies in the right direction for better decision-making, knowing what to spend the investment on in terms of technology and talent is fundamentally important.

The Forrester Study, commissioned by Eyeota, noted that 62% of decision-makers planned to focus investment on integrating systems and eradicating data silos in order to leverage their organisations’ data effectively. It found that almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) want to invest in audience profiling and analytics tools further, while almost three-quarters (74%) intend to invest in propensity modelling and predictive behaviour tools over the next 12 months. Moreover, with only 44% currently investing in first-party data platforms, organisations have a tremendous opportunity to not only adopt the correct tools and capabilities to enhance their use of this data, but also to make sure their strategic practices fully embrace first-party data for decision-making.

There is no single path to becoming a data-driven company - some firms might focus on building the right data team, while others invest in the right technology or build analytics into their digital transformation strategy. Start-ups and newer companies have an advantage as they’re able to build data into the framework of their organisation. Incumbents face challenges like entrenched business processes or reluctant leadership.

As discussed previously, creating a data-centric culture is one of the keys to becoming a data-driven firm. Forrester found that 77% of business leaders said culture is the biggest barrier to becoming data-driven, and the building of this culture was the top priority. During the pandemic, as companies all tried to unlock the value of data faster, leaders continued to identify culture as the main block.

Nevertheless, technology is also key. Applications and technology are now designed around what data is needed for a business to make decisions. Companies should organise their systems and applications to give the right people access to data so they can make decisions quickly.

Companies with outdated technology - reports and dashboards, on-premises enterprise data warehouses, siloed data marts, and email as the primary source of communication - often have a culture where data is hoarded. Instead, companies should invest in a modern technology portfolio with AI-driven insights, data lakes, collaboration tools like Slack, cloud-based, logical data warehouses, and augmented analytics. This often correlates to an innovative culture where data is democratised, there is transparency and trust, expertise and insights are shared, and people feel empowered and energised to embrace the new.