There are three pillars that companies need to consider in their pursuit to becoming a data-centric organisation.
This is according to Morne Bekker, country manager at NetApp SA and district manager, SADC region, speaking at the ITWeb Digital Economy 2017 summit yesterday.
"Cultural change needs to happen for companies to understand that data is their only real permanent asset," he pointed out.
Time, budget and skills he explained, are the three pillars that organisations have to take into consideration to successfully transform digitally.
"Data must become the lifeblood of an organisation, seamlessly flowing through it in order to optimise operations, create innovative business opportunities, and enable new customer touchpoints through technology."
Discussing skills, Bekker pointed out that there is a massive skills shortage in SA as a result of a huge amount of ICT skills resources that have left the country.
"Nearly 6 out of 10 CIOs believe skills shortages will prevent their organisation from keeping up with the pace of change-one-third more than just three years ago," he explained.
Making reference to the local banking sector, Bekker explained although local banks have brilliant banking systems, almost all of them are still grappling with legacy issues and implementing change will require the right skills.
Discussing budget, Bekker explained traditional IT budgets of organisations will remain constrained between 2017-2020.
"With the IT budget shrinking across companies, organisations are expected to do more with less and digital transformation requires them to think differently and strategically invest in strong digital transformation initiatives and embrace them."
Another area where local organisations need to improve is in their turnaround time - how quickly they are able to analyse the data they have and use it to make meaningful decisions, he continued.
"Organisations have tons of data at hand, but often take too long to make meaningful information out of it, and process it to ensure it aligns with their future strategies. For instance, market demand for app development will grow at least times faster than IT's capacity to deliver it through 2021."
By taking these three pillars into consideration, organisations should learn to use data to create innovative business opportunities, optimise operations and increase their client base, he continued.
"But first organisations need to start with understanding their data through strategic analysis. Then they have to get the timing of the analytics right, by having the data at the right place, and at the right time to take advantage of the value it creates - the person who wins that time race will stay ahead of the competition," he concluded.
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