CDOs facing critical challenges in the coming year

fragmentation CDOs
Image by Digital Clipart | Bigstockphoto

Informatica recently announced the findings from its second annual IDC Global Survey of the Office of the Chief Data Officer (CDO), published in the IDC InfoBrief, “Driving Business Value from Data in the Face of Fragmentation and Complexity”, sponsored by Informatica, examines the critical challenges CDOs face, their priorities for the coming year, and key performance indicators they should work towards while stewarding enterprises to success in a digital-first world.

In Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ), the survey revealed that over 75% of organizations have already embarked on their digital transformation (DX) journeys, and 70% regularly use multiple clouds, putting the region at the forefront of the world. But despite greater data leadership, almost 60% of APJ organizations felt unprepared to combat the rapid changes during COVID-19.

Three key themes in Asia Pacific from the 2021 Global CDO study include:

Asia’s Greatest Challenge: Data Fragmentation and Complexity Distract from Innovation

Enterprise infrastructure will be cloud-first and multi-hybrid for many years, with systems spread across on-premise and multi-cloud environments. The findings showed that:

  • 70% of APJ organizations regularly use multiple clouds, and 44% of APJ organizations regularly use hybrid clouds
  • 82% of Asian organizations are managing over 100 data sources, and 32% are managing more than 1,000 sources
  • Three quarters (74%) of APJ data executives spend the most time on daily operational management rather than on governance and strategic initiatives

It is this fragmentation, with data spread across multiple sources and many clouds that is making it much more difficult to discover, manage and derive intelligence from their data. Highlighting the chasm in delivering business value between data leaders and laggards, the study found that enterprises with a high level of data maturity generate 250% more business value than those only beginning their data-led transformations, where most of the time in data management is spent keeping the lights on. 

Operationalizing AI to Automate Data Management is Critical to Success

Only AI can deliver the speed and scalability demanded by modern enterprises and the study found that data mature organizations were 3X times better at operationalizing AI to automate data management activities than their less mature peers.

  • Innovation with data starts with enabling access, yet 73% of APJ organizations are struggling to manage self-service data
  • Only 37% of organizations in APJ have automated data management across the business
  • And only 35% of APJ organizations have operationalized AI for process optimization and automation

Leaders in the region consider improving data ingestion and integration capabilities as top priority as they look to better incorporate data into decision making.

All Eyes on Leadership – But Who’s in Charge?

The study highlighted how critical data management is to digital transformation, noting that organizations with strong data leadership are three times more likely to be well underway with digital transformation. However, fragmentation and complexity in APJ extend even into executive’s data roles.

  • 33% of APJ organizations have enterprise data executives and leaders, while the other 67% distribute responsibility across other C-level positions
  • There are no clear reporting lines for data leaders in the region, with a good mix of data leaders reporting to CEOs, CIOs, COOs and CTOs
  • Despite being the most mature region for data leadership, less than half of APJ organizations have a standardized data function

The way organizations resolve fragmentation and complexity issues separates leaders from laggards, with leaders adopting an integrated approach to data management with standardization and automation as core facets.

The IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Informatica, “Driving Business Value from Data in the Face of Fragmentation and Complexity,” (Doc#US48293521, November 2021) surveyed 899 members of the office of the CDO, across ten countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan.

Related article: One in two APAC public sector CDOs unclear on responsibilities

Be the first to comment

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.