Data Is Very Valuable, Just Don't Ask Us To Measure It, Leaders Say

Fifteen years of big data hype, and guess what? Less than one in four of those in charge of analytics projects actually measure the value of the activity to the organization they work for.

There is a massive value vibe around data... but there are few who can substantiate it

The result from Gartner – a staggering one considering the attention heaped on big data and its various hype-oriented successors – found that in a survey of chief data and analytics (D&A) officers, only 22 percent had defined, tracked, and communicated business impact metrics for the bulk of their data and analytics use cases.

It wasn't for lack of interest though. For more than 90 percent of the 504 respondents, value-focused and outcome-focused areas of the D&A leader's role have gained dominance over the past 12 to 18 months, and will continue to be a concern in the future.

It is difficult, though: 30 percent of respondents say their top challenge is the inability to measure data, analytics and AI impact on business outcomes.

"There is a massive value vibe around data, where many organizations talk about the value of data, desire to be data-driven, but there are few who can substantiate it," said Michael Gabbard, senior director analyst at Gartner.

He added that while most chief data and analytics officers were responsible for data strategy, a third do not see putting in place an operating model as a primary responsibility. "There is a perennial gap between planning and execution for D&A leaders," he said.

A lack of progress in seeing the business value in data and analytics is interesting, since the hype around big data has been around for roughly 15 years, when the Hadoop Distributed File System became the next big thing. What's more, it's roughly 10 years since Hadoop slinger Hortonworks saw its shares rise 65 percent on the day of its IPO.

It later merged with fellow Hadoop vendor Cloudera, which enjoyed some choppy waters thereafter.

Still, big data never really died, it just found a new platform. This time on object storage in the cloud, with Snowflake becoming a poster child for the trend, and enjoying its own staggering $120 billion valuation shortly after its IPO in 2020.

Gartner estimated that the data and analytics software market was worth around $150 billion in 2023.

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In its latest research, the tech research biz is saying data is going to be even more important as "boards and C-suites are now prioritizing investments in AI to drive business transformation and remain competitive," according to a recent paper. To do this, they must rely on chief data and analytics officers to "deliver foundational AI-ready data, governance and people that are pivotal to AI success."

Gartner added: "While C-suites want AI, they don't necessarily know the details of what new capabilities are needed for 'AI-ready data'."

It follows that anyone building AI models on organizational data will require a robust data platform. But it does raise an interesting question: will we be back in another 10 years wondering who is measuring the business value of all that AI in which organizations have invested billions? ®