Today’s business leaders view data as among their most valuable assets—some even call it the lifeblood of their organization. That’s why more and more of them are implementing the newest Big Data tools, investing in advanced analytics applications, and purchasing the latest data visualization software.
But to truly unlock its value, companies must begin treating data as a supply chain, enabling it to flow easily and usefully through the entire organization as a strategic asset. By managing data holistically, organizations can maximize its value and gain competitive advantage.
The Accenture Technology Vision 2014 identifies data supply chain as one of the six key IT trends that hold the most potential to transform businesses over the next three years. The reasons for this are threefold:
- Corporate data silos: Businesses are struggling to access, share, and analyze much of the data they already possess.
- Rising data volumes: The digital universe is doubling every two years. In addition to the data organizations already collect, new external data sources are available, providing new opportunities for data insights.
- Maturing data technology: The tools and technology required to build a data platform are here and available, ensuring data access— to those who need it when they need it—and velocity—accelerating time-critical data through the supply chain, while stale, less relevant data moves more slowly but still meets the demands of the business.
The report details the different stages of enabling the data supply chain, from setting up a data services platform to maximizing data uses and value, and concludes with a 100-day plan businesses can use as guidance to lay the foundations for their own data supply chain.
With 85% of Fortune 500 organizations reporting that they are unable to exploit Big Data for competitive advantage, getting your data supply chain in place will be a big differentiator.
For more insights into data supply chain and the other five IT trends, visit the Tech Vision website.
