Data and the key to success

Andrew Cornell

Past Managing Editor, bluenotes

How businesses use data – as opposed to just collecting it – will determine success in an increasingly digital marketplace, according to Senior Vice President & Global Head of Research at Gartner, Peter Sondergaard.

Speaking to bluenotes, Sondergaard said with the right kind of analytics tools data can become the oil powering the engine of a business.

“Data is actually not valuable of itself,” he said. “In many ways data is important but actually without having the tools to turn it into something valuable it really does nothing for our business.”

" Data is the foundation of organisations… but you need the tools [to use it]." Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President & Global Head of Research at Gartner

“Data is the foundation of organisations. In fact, that’s what determines success. But you need the tools to do so as well.”

Sondergaard said advances in artificial intelligence technology were helping some businesses “extract value [from data] without having human beings involved”.

He said businesses still had a long way to go when it came to effectively utilising their data – “even in financial services industry which you would argue was founded on data”.

“What I think we need to do is recognise that value, which means we have to place organisational responsibility for the strategy of what we do with data,” Sondergaard said.

“It’s a fundamental part of a proactive strategy against, for example, the fintech environment.”

He also touched on data security and the ethics and collecting customer data. Watch the video and listen to the podcast above to find out more.

Peter Sondergaard is Senior Vice President & Global Head of Research at Gartner, specialising in IT, supply chain and marketing. Gartner provides consulting services to ANZ.

Andrew Cornell is Managing Editor at bluenotes

The views and opinions expressed in this communication are those of the author and may not necessarily state or reflect those of ANZ.