Better data collection and management key for digital transformation

There’s an alarming gap between the expectations of senior management and the readiness of IT organizations for “digital business,” according to a report from backup and recovery technology provider Commvault and consultancy Quadrant Strategies.

The companies surveyed 1,200 IT executives and IT personnel in six global business markets, and found that while many executives recognize the need to be able to lead their companies through digital transformation, IT personnel actually feel they lack the skills, technology and bandwidth to create the data-centric foundation needed.

The findings demonstrate that with the shift “a more holistic approach to data management” and a data-driven strategy to drive innovation and competitive differentiation is also taking place.

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Servers and hard drives stand inside pod one of International Business Machines Corp.'s (IBM) Softlayer data center in Dallas, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. IBM is scheduled to release earnings figures on Jan. 21. Photographer: Ben Torres/Bloomberg

More than half of the respondents said better data collection and management and new tools to analyze increasingly sophisticated data are essential to the future success of their business. More than 60 percent, including IT executives and IT personnel, think they have access to less than half of their organizations’ data.

Other key findings: While 41 percent of executives think their organizations understand and are prepared for innovation, only 29 percent of IT personnel think the same; 51 percent of the executives admit that when they think about what their company needs to be successful, it comes down to better data collection and management; 60 percent of IT executives said their role will change radically due to new technology/new skills to stay relevant; and of that 60 percent, 58 percent said better data collection and management is necessary for success.

This story originally appeared in Information Management.
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