Lack of data maturity prevents companies from achieving key outcomes: HPE survey

Indian organisations are lacking in terms of data maturity, even though the country is among the most data rich in the world. Data maturity is the measurement of an organisation’s ability to create value from data. 

According to a survey published on December 8 by information technology firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) average organisations around the world have a data maturity level of 2.6 on a five-point scale; for India, the score stood at 2.9.

The survey said that a lack of data maturity prevents organisations from achieving outcomes like growing sales innovation, internal efficiency, and advancing environmental sustainability. The survey was conducted by market research company YouGov on behalf of HPE by interviewing 8,600 C-level executives from across public and private sector organisations in 19 countries.

The lowest level of data maturity (level 1) indicates ‘data anarchy’, meaning data pools are isolated from each other and are not systematically analysed to create insights. The highest level 5 indicates data economics, where the organisation strategically leverages data using AI and advanced analytics to drive outcomes. In India, 6% of the organisations were found to be on level 1 and 3% on level 5; globally, these percentages stood at 14% and 3% respectively.

In the context of the surveyed Indian organisations, only 18% of respondents said that data strategy is a key part of their corporate strategy. Another 17% said that their organisation allocates no budget for data initiatives. 

“As India is rapidly becoming one of the most data-rich countries in the world, it has the power to create new paradigms of business activity. However, our survey reveals that the lack of data capabilities limits the growth and innovation of many organisations. They need to realise that and close strategic, organisational, and technological gaps to get ready for the data economy,” said Som Satsangi, senior vice president & managing director, HPE India. 

Antonia Neri, president and chief executive offer of HPE, noted that there is a broad consensus around the world that data has the potential to advance the way we live and work, but organisations will have to shift digital transformation strategies to unlock its benefits. 

"We must move from ‘cloud first’ to ‘data first’ as the North Star of digital transformation,” Neri said.