Gartner Report Provides Actionable Advice on How to Modernize Your Data Strategy

The pace of digital adoption is impossible to ignore, yet many data and analytics teams continue to follow the same conventional practices rather than adapting their approaches.

“The role of data and analytics is changing, from being a stand-alone discipline to becoming a catalyst for digital strategy or transformation,” according to a recent Gartner report, How to Craft a Modern, Actionable Data and Analytics Strategy That Delivers Business Outcomes. “Data and analytics leaders should create a strategy and operating model that conceives data-driven business opportunities and orchestrates enterprise action.”

Distinguished VP and Gartner Fellow Frank Buytendijk and distinguished VP Analyst Mike Rollings encourage data leaders to bring data & analytics into business strategy to drive transformative results. This requires creating an operating model that drives data into critical decision-making forums, and overcomes gaps in the data ecosystem.

It’s time to change the data & analytics operating model

The report insists, data and analytics leaders should adopt new assumptions that synthesize their strategies with business goals to further sharpen their approach. This can be done by following The Data and Analytics Strategy and Operating Model (DASOM) framework proposed in the report, which is designed to enable Chief Data Officers to create a strategy that meets the needs of a modern and forward-looking organization.

DASOM links strategy and operations, with strategy as the overall approach for how to achieve a stated business vision with the operating model being the means of getting there. This framework brings a fresh approach by helping CDOs focus on the broader goal of driving business outcomes.

It’s clear that this change in approach is already underway. According to the report, more than one-third of data and analytics leaders cite “increased revenue” as a top three measure of success. Defining data and analytics strategy is the top responsibility of 86% of Chief Data Officers, up from 64% in 2016. And 71% have the role of “digital advisor” — being a thought leader on emerging digital models and helping to create the digital business vision for the enterprise.

This is about accelerating revenue

These metrics align with findings from The 2021 State of Data Report, jointly commissioned by Red Hat and Starburst. Of the more than 400 global organizations surveyed, 35% wanted to improve growth and revenue generation in their current strategies.

With the rapidly changing landscape of almost every industry due to the pandemic, today’s enterprises have significantly less time to gain insight on their data before it’s outdated. Viability of business decisions come down to a matter of milliseconds (according to 17% of respondents), with 39% of business decisions requiring latency of one second or less. It’s clear that a sharp and pointed data strategy can result in faster insights and therefore more valuable business decisions.

How Starburst can help

At Starburst, we work hard to equip data leaders with the right tools to build data-driven strategies that accelerate business outcomes. We’re honored to work with more than 150 leading enterprises and one such example is Zalando, who adopted Starburst Enterprise to give their buyers and business analysts a more efficient way to extract value from their data. Having easier access to more data meant they could better understand their customers and therefore sharpen their strategy, resulting in growth of revenue and overall business operations.

The time to improve your data strategy is now 

To help, we have developed a Data Strategy Benchmark Toolkit that includes this Gartner report, the Zalando case study, and The 2021 State of Data report, to enable data and analytics leaders with what they need to modernize their approach, innovate their strategy and drive tangible business outcomes. Download your complimentary toolkit now!

How to Craft a Modern, Actionable Data and Analytics Strategy That Delivers Business Outcomes, 22 October 2019, Frank Buytendijk, Mike Rollings GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.