According to the report by Capgemini Research Institute, data-powered enterprises vastly outperform their peers on multiple financial measures, realising 70 per cent more revenue per employee and driving 22 per cent more profits.

The report, titled ‘The data-powered enterprise: Why organizations must strengthen their data mastery’, says that data mastery is critical to gain a competitive edge.

It stated that while applying data and analytics is becoming a prerequisite for success, less than 40 per cent of organisations use data-driven insights to drive business value and innovation.

The report highlighted that only one in six (about 16 per cent) organisations can be categorized as data masters based on several factors of data mastery.

The research showed that 50 per cent of organisations put data at the heart of decision-making. In terms of sectors, banking (65 per cent) and insurance (55 per cent) are more data-driven.

While progress has been made, a majority (51 per cent) of the time, businesses still use historical data (a reactive decision-making approach). Only 23 per cent of the time do they use predictive approaches, while 18 per cent of the time they use prescriptive approaches and use an autonomous or self-optimising approach just 8 per cent of the time.

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Business benefits

Data masters enjoy 30-90 per cent advantage in metrics across customer engagement, top-line benefits, operational efficiency, and cost savings.

The survey further noted that only 20 per cent of business executives trust the data while 62 per cent of technical executives believe their business users do so.

Of the organisations where data is not trusted, the research found that only 24 per cent were able to monetise their data assets in comparison to 83 per cent where it is trusted.

Poor data quality is a major contributor to this mistrust: only 27 per cent of business executives are happy with their data quality. The consequences of poor data quality are significant, costing companies between 15 - 25 per cent of their revenue.

Commenting on the survey, Zhiwei Jiang, CEO of Insights and Data at Capgemini said: “Business leaders fundamentally need to look at their data strategy and innovation pathway.”

“We still don’t have enough data-minded leaders at the C-suite level to drive organizations on the right data journey. There’s a lot more at stake for businesses who don’t act... Those that don’t will get left behind,” Jiang added.

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Research methodology

Capgemini surveyed technical executives working in IT/data functions such as IT, information management, data management and analytics, and business intelligence from 500 organizations.

Additionally, Capgemini surveyed business executives working across business functions from 504 organizations. Both surveys were conducted in August of 2020 and covered organizations with at least $1 billion in revenue for the previous financial year.

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