The second in our series of Tech Connect roundtables brought together a large group of senior executives to discuss the importance of aligning a data strategy with the business strategy, reaching a consensus that a ‘top down’ approach was needed to ensure that financial services businesses can create as much value from the data they hold as possible.
Led by John Gamble, Director of Professional Services at BDO Group, the invitation-only group of technology, change and business-intelligence executives were taken through a presentation which firstly outlined why a business should have a data strategy, how this sits alongside an overall business strategy, where they might sit on a maturing sliding scale, how that business can extract value from their data, and finally how to leverage the power of AI.
In recent years, the volume of data held by businesses has exploded, and with cloud computing moving to the mainstream, brings with it the opportunity to hold even more data without additional costs. But holding all this data brings with it great responsibility, and there is debate as to who owns responsibility for this – the technology team, the operations functions, or the business management executive. One thing was clear, linking data to strategic intent is vital and for this to happen a change in culture may be required in some businesses.
Data underpins every part of a transformation project, providing the vision, business case, roadmap, and architecture yet often the focus is on the output rather than getting the fundamentals right in the planning process. Taking time to create a map of the organisation from a data perspective ensures that, if necessary, an operational model can change, with ambassadors appointed if required to demonstrate and showcase the value of data to the board.
What a business doesn’t know is as important as what it does know. Identifying data gaps are vital to ensure a full picture is realised of potential opportunities for products or customers.
A clear long-term vision is key. With clear ambitions in mind: optimum client experience, a controlled environment, automated experiences and – crucially, improving colleague experiences. Managing data can be time consuming and mistakes can be made. Resolving this issue is key to maintaining a clean data set and ultimately a better customer experience. And all this needs to be scalable.
The Gartner Hype Cycle for AI systems shows that firms have two years to prepare for the mainstream use of AI in their businesses. AI brings with it huge opportunities; however data management is going to be crucial to getting the best out of AI tooling and machine learning. Putting the right information and data into AI is the key to reaping the benefits that the technology can deliver. Gamification and the use of apps rather than laborious spreadsheets were cited as a way to engage colleagues in the benefits of data management and AI can enhance this methodology even further.
The group concluded that while there was a difference in opinion in the room as to which stage each business was on the maturity scale, data unpins every part of a business and without buy-in at board level, it was impossible to realise the true value of the data that is held.
