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Which data projects should companies focus on?


Johannesburg, 17 Feb 2021

Organisations across the board are racing to extract value from data. However, they need to ask themselves what data is most valuable, and how they can extract it. They need to focus on the data projects that add the most value, but how should a business decide?

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It comes down to cost benefit, says Michael-John Truter, head of Analytics Consulting at Investec, who will be presenting on 'Going ‘back to basics’: knowing which data project(s) to focus on without investing in advanced technologies’, at ITWeb Business Intelligence Summit 2021, to be held from 9 to 11 March as a virtual event.

What remains critical is how we measure cost and benefit, he says. “The starting point of benefit should be the primary value for business, whether it is product revenue, client experience or something else. Data value comes from a strong data decision-making culture, and that boils down to business value. Data projects add the most value if they are used as part of a decision-making process, not a rival to it.”

He also says companies shouldn’t rush to invest a fortune in advanced technologies. “There is so much that can be accomplished with what companies already have in place.”

And data teams should play a big role in promoting non-advanced technology pillars such as data foundations, data culture, storytelling and usage of insights – examples of data maturity evolvement.

“No one is denying the power of advanced technologies – the point is that basics need to be in place to make the best use of technologies, advanced or not.”

Delegates attending his talk will learn about the importance of basics to develop data cultures that put data teams in a position to co-navigate business strategy.

In addition, he will focus on structures and techniques – from foundational to insights usage – that will enhance the relevance, effectiveness and purpose of data teams.

“We will look at some features to move away from data team stereotypes, to provide tools to take your business’ data strategy forward, by only using some ‘basics’.”

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