8 out of 10 CIOs agree harnessing data assets is their top priority

CIOs across Asia-Pacific agree on two points: data must be at the core of their business, and they are struggling with the organizational impediments to achieving this.

The findings are in a new study published by Forrester Research, Moving The Needle: Data Management For The Multi-Hybrid Age Of IT.

According to the report, 82 per cent of the 670 business and technology decision makers surveyed wanted their data strategy to lead to a better understanding of the customer, so the organization could tailor better customer experiences.

However, 73 per cent also said they faced disparate and siloed data strategies which were impeding their progress towards achieving this goal.

Despite these problems, parts of Asia-Pacific are already progressing well compared with some other countries, according to Oracle Asia-Pacific and Japan, Senior Vice-President, Systems, Alliances, Channels, and ISV, Han Chung Heng.

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Speaking on episode 1 of CIO Asia’s Data in the Digital Age podcast series, Han said, “China, India, Korea and ANZ are the wider region’s digital transformation players. They are already reaching stage four of the maturity curve. By contrast, South-East Asia is still in exploratory mode.”

CIOs are facing a challenging data landscape with a plethora of high throughput technologies that need to be implemented including Internet of Things (IoT) IP-connected sensors, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G mobile devices. 

However, despite these technologies currently riding high on the hype curve, the biggest priority for CIOs is getting data under control, Han says.

57 per cent of 670 technology and business decision makers said investing in technologies to fully support their data management strategy and execution was their highest priority, according to a Forrester study.

Han says the organizations in Asia-Pacific that are achieving the most in harnessing their data assets are those that are breaking out of their corporate mould and thinking entrepreneurially.

“There is also a lack of entrepreneurial spirit at the top of many of the traditional organizations,” Han noted. “They are pretty risk averse. The leadership mindset and the willingness to change are preventing adoption of this kind of new technology.”

Han poses the question: “How do you even raise a RFP for the kind of Agile, transformational activity that leading entrepreneurial organizations are going through right now?”

Listen to episode 1 of CIO’s Data in the Digital Age podcast series to get answers on:

• The state of the market from a digital standpoint in the Asia-Pacific
• The rising impact of emerging technologies
• The key digital challenges facing CIOs today
• How data is shaping enterprise strategies

Don’t miss out on episode 2 of CIO Asia’s Data in the Digital Age podcast. Click here to listen.