Report: Data blindspots leading to digital and customer transformation failure

There needs to be better data sharing within organisations to realise the benefits of CX, new Microsoft research into Australian organisations finds

A new report has found an inability to share data across organisations is styming Australian organisations and leading to digital transformation failure. 

The new research commissioned by Microsoft Australia found while 69 per cent of local enterprises say they have an integrated digital transformation strategy, only 28 per cent have a company-wide strategy for sharing data, meaning projects are failing.

In addition, the research revealed over a third (37 per cent) of Australian organisations claimed more than one in five of their customer experience (CX) projects had failed, costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Again, data was found to lie at the heart of these failures.

The study of 505 medium to large organisations was conducted by business-to-business research agency, Colmar Brunton, found data is too often locked away in silos, where it is not easily surfaced or accessible, acting as a brake on transformation. 

As a result, the biggest challenges respondents faced include being able to customise offers and bundle products and services with personal pricing; modify go-to-market strategies in real time; gain a 360-degree view of the customer; and validate and test new ideas. All of these require access to the right data at the right time to gain intelligence and insights. 

Without access to a comprehensive array of data, organisations are limited in their ability to intelligently use data to engage customers, empower people, optimise and automate processes, and transform products and services. 

However, this also means there is significant transformation opportunities for Australian enterprises moving forward. 

Asked about the importance of data in terms of automating business processes, 83 per cent of respondents said it was ‘somewhat to extremely’ important; 82 per cent said the same about access to data to gain a 360-degree view of the customer; and 79 per cent said it was somewhat to extremely important for generating a real time insight into the pipeline of opportunities. 

However, the research also reveals that in spite of the critical role data plays to CX transformation, almost a third say there is little to no data sharing across the organisation. 

Microsoft said crafting corporate-wide data sharing policies and implementing technology that allows all of an enterprise’s data to be accessed when and where it is required is critical to optimise decision making and take informed action across an organisation, and reduce the risk of failed and costly CX projects. 

Respondents also said two major barriers to successful transformation were a lack of senior management support (64 per cent) and a lack of company strategy from the board down (61 per cent). This suggests that there needs to be a much clearer narrative from the top about the importance of transformation to the organisation, and the benefits it will deliver. 

Michael O’Keefe, business applications director at Microsoft, said transformation requires an integrated digital strategy with comprehensive access to company-wide data at its heart. This encourages informed insights and better decision-making, which in turn, delivers dramatically enhanced outcomes. 

“It’s really important that organisations identify and tackle their digital blindspots – and introduce policies, processes and technology that lets data help draft the organisational transformation blueprint,” he said. 

“We wanted to understand where customers and Australian businesses are at in terms of driving business transformation.

“What we found is only 28 per cent had a company-wide data strategy, which is pretty low.

“So there is not a lot of data sharing across organisations. I think this is because over the last five to seven years businesses have been accelerating IT modernisation to be able get a better handle and drive value around data. Now they are starting to concentrate on CX and drive this.

“There is potentially a lack of maturity in terms of the ability to take data from the silos and drive value from it. There is also a data governance problem.

“We recommend four areas to focus on to improve, including customer engagement and connecting to those customers with the right data, empowering employees, operational efficiencies, and transforming services and products for the market,” O’Keefe told CMO.

He also recommended businesses understand how their customers engage with their products and services, and then starting small and scaling as they deploy data platforms.

He said while a lack of skills might currently be occurring around this in the workforce, we will see more people with digital native skills starting to appear.

“Organisations do need to think about how to best use the data to drive value. Of course, they also must consider privacy and factor in relevant legislation, and looks to scale CX and have the scope to look at the next gen of CX. CX is layered through the whole business as customer demand grows.

“Australian organisations are in a great spot to continue to keep innovating and to keep an eye on innovation going on globally, we just need to ensure we focus on the fundamentals of getting that data strategy right,” he said.

The research, which focussed on the finance, retail and government sectors, asked organisations to rank the prioritisation of four key areas aligned to their transformation efforts: Customer engagement, employee empowerment, operational optimisation, and product/service transformation. 

Respondents were asked to rate successful delivery on a scale of zero to ten, with a ‘net success score’ produced. Again, engaging customers was the only outcome to achieve a positive ‘net success score’.

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+:google.com/+CmoAu     

 

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in