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Today’s enterprise data environments can be a goldmine of insight or a quagmire of confusion depending on the company and their approach to data integration and data management. Many struggle to manage a complex web of cloud applications — ironically designed to alleviate the very problems they now face with data accessibility and timeliness of delivery. Top companies now recognize the need for a more unified integration approach that combines the right technologies and managed services to deliver a more consistent and reliable view of their data across disparate applications, ultimately driving measurable business results.
The Pitfalls of Disjointed Data
When companies bring people, processes, and systems together, they can more effectively harness the power of their data. However, many companies have disconnected or disjointed data, and thus, disjointed visibility into key operational processes. Aberdeen’s research demonstrates some significant challenges that companies face in wrangling their data environment. Those challenges might vary by role, but they all have a significant impact (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Top Challenges Point to a Need for Data Integration
Not surprisingly, IT professionals are most challenged by a marked lack of resources in managing system data, while data scientists are plagued by the inaccessibility of complete and quality data. In other words, there are too many data silos created by many departmental systems — at the same time, there is a growing demand by business leaders for better and more timely data for strategic decision making. This is an unenviable predicament in which many companies today find themselves.
Additionally, many companies don’t fully understand the scope of data management issues they face. Research findings show that over 30% of companies don’t know or don’t measure the total amount of active business data their organization manages. While almost 60% of companies want to increase operational efficiency by enhancing or extending their data platforms, they are not taking the proper measures to utilize their data. At its essence, modern data environments crave the clarity and consistency they need to extract business insights and act on them quickly.
To add even more fuel to the fire, companies need to manage the flow of data and accelerate its delivery, all the while paying close attention to data security, privacy, and regulatory risks. At a minimum, these risks include data availability to business-critical systems, applications, data confidentiality and integrity assurance, and, most importantly, the guarantee that valuable and / or regulated data is secure. Many organizations struggle with quantifying the risk to sensitive data as a result of inadequate data management. Aberdeen’s analysis based on empirical data from thousands of organizations quantifies the potential risk of a data breach (see sidebar). Moreover, virtually all planned application deployment growth favors cloud service providers over on-premise implementations, which further accelerates data sprawl as monolithic ERP systems dematerialize.
Integration Leadership and the Value of Data Unity
The reality of today’s data-hungry business world is that companies of a certain size simply need to have a formal, dedicated approach to integration, and many of them carry multiple different data integration systems in their infrastructure. The more a company grows, the more applications it brings on board — and the more applications in the mix, the more systems needed to capture value from the environment as a whole.
As with all technology strategy, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this, sometimes producing drastically different results. According to Aberdeen’s research, Best-in-Class companies are willing to invest the time and resources to create a dedicated approach to integration that incorporates an effective blend of technology, process, and expertise that work in concert to deliver measurable business performance benefits. On the technology side, a Best-in-Class approach to integration seeks to unify the most advantageous qualities of different systems in order to leverage prior investments and avoid the time and hassle of various rip-and-replace projects. Some platforms are built for accessibility, allowing for the use of multiple different flavors of data (e.g., unstructured, external sources). Others are built for speed in service of today’s more sophisticated analytical platforms. The research shows that Best-in-Class companies are 2.5 times more likely to have real-time data integration capabilities than other organizations.
When it comes to process, top-performing companies lean on a variety of capabilities that help support their integration efforts. Among their most important internal competencies, Best-in-Class organizations lean on a strong partnership between IT and Line-of-Business (LOB) decision makers. The most sophisticated and efficient technology available would be limited in value without the ability to connect IT expertise with the business wisdom that drives better decisions. Top companies are more likely to report this type of effective relationship (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Building Maturity into the Data Environment
Similarly, the other internal capabilities that top organizations depend on relate to their ability to connect business users with the right data. They support the ability for non-technical decision makers to connect to new data sources, work to raise the bar of analytical prowess within the organization, and take steps to reduce friction in the flow of data across different functional areas.
Building Expertise Internally and Externally
Business data as a whole is growing at a rate that is often unpredictable and downright alarming for most companies. The bigger issue, though, is the complexity and disparity of all the different applications and source systems, as well as the relative inaccessibility of those systems (see sidebar). Either out of sophistication or pure necessity, top companies have learned how to operate in this environment as efficiently as possible. Figure 2 provides a snapshot of several capabilities they develop internally and some of the skills they rely on to adapt their data environment to the realities of modern data.
However, even the most cutting-edge organizations recognize when the complexity of their data environment outstrips their ability to manage it effectively. In those ever more common scenarios, companies are looking externally for support — not just in managing their data itself, but in managing the various source systems put in place over the years. The top reason companies do this is to free up their own valuable internal resources to focus on projects more strategic to the business (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Key Drivers of Integration as a Managed Service
A major challenge for companies with a complex data environment is rationalizing data across multiple different departments — many of which own their IT resources and specific integration projects. Top companies today seek help from managed service providers to create a single point of contact for various integration projects across the organization.Â
In addition to freeing up internal resources for more strategic and high-level initiatives, companies also observe the benefits of expert integration resources who help accelerate the delivery of integration projects. Expert integration resources can also help companies create data governance strategies that include improving data quality and accuracy, accessibility, consistency, and completeness.Â
Another key reason many companies look to a managed services model for integration is the desire to shift away from a capital-intensive IT spend model, and more toward a variable cost operating expense model. This allows for companies to scale up and down in a more agile way to meet the demands of their data environment.Â
For similar reasons, companies also turn to a cloud-based infrastructure to help promote this more flexible expense model while simultaneously promoting better end-to-end visibility into their data. The research demonstrates that a majority of Best-in-Class companies are operating in a cloud or hybrid environment and are 20% more likely to have a purely cloud-based data environment.
Unified Data Integration Drives Results
Facing rapidly expanding data environments and more heterogeneity in their source systems, especially in the Cloud, the need for companies to have an established data integration strategy has intensified. In addition to that expansion of data complexity, many companies today face scenarios where key business applications — from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to Supply Chain Management (SCM) — need to be embedded with other company Web applications and legacy systems. Those with a formal, established, and unified approach to integration enjoy significant improvements in performance when compared to others with a less formal or more ad hoc approach (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Arming Users to Support Business Performance
In order to help support a unified integration environment and deliver these results, top companies seek support from managed service providers that alleviate the burden of juggling multiple platforms and provide more extensible data visibility across the organization. These efforts made in the technical environment have a ripple effect that reaches into less technical roles in other departments of the company. Recalling Figure 2 from page 4, we see that users have the ability to access new and important data while in the throes of their own self-directed analyses, leading to enhanced levels of satisfaction with the quality of the data and the timeliness of delivery — something that is sorely needed in organizations (see sidebar).Ultimately, with broader yet secure access to higher quality data delivered in a timelier way, companies are well positioned to aptly identify and act upon business opportunities, leading to enhancements in both profitability and customer growth.
In order to help support a unified integration environment and deliver these results, top companies seek support from managed service providers that alleviate the burden of juggling multiple platforms and provide more extensible data visibility across the organization. These efforts made in the technical environment have a ripple effect that reaches into less technical roles in other departments of the company. Recalling Figure 2 from page 4, we see that users have the ability to access new and important data while in the throes of their own self-directed analyses, leading to enhanced levels of satisfaction with the quality of the data and the timeliness of delivery — something that is sorely needed in organizations (see sidebar).Ultimately, with broader yet secure access to higher quality data delivered in a timelier way, companies are well positioned to aptly identify and act upon business opportunities, leading to enhancements in both profitability and customer growth.
Key Takeaways
The research demonstrates that while many companies struggle to manage the growing complexity of applications and data sources, those that implement a unified strategy and approach to improving their data environment through a unified data integration platform see better business results. The most important takeaways derived from the research include the following:
â–ºHighly distributed application environments today necessitate a sound approach to integration. Today’s enterprise cloud application environments can provide tremendous value for a company, if utilized properly. Modern data environments seek clean and consistent data to extract business insights and act on them quickly. Thus, as companies grow and put more applications in place, they need systems to capture and manage the value of their data.
â–º Top companies seek expertise internally and externally. Business data continues to grow at a significant rate. As the complexity grows for businesses and their data, so too does the disparity across business applications and the data those platforms produce. Top companies develop internal capabilities that allow them to be flexible in a challenging data environment, but also look externally by seeking help from managed service providers. Doing so creates a single point of contact for various integration projects across the organization and frees up their own valuable internal resources to focus on projects more strategic to the business. Â
► Effective data integration drives business execution. Having an established integration strategy and approach to manage and leverage enterprise data allows companies to harness the value of their business, and data to be fully utilized by the people who are trying to get the most out of it — which as a result, drives business execution.
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Aberdeen Strategy & ResearchOpens a new window , a division of Spiceworks Ziff DavisOpens a new window , with over three decades of experience in independent, credible market research, helps illuminate market realities and inform business strategies. Our fact-based, unbiased, and outcome-centric research approach provides insights on technology, customer management, and business operations, to inspire critical thinking and ignite data-driven business actions.