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Dr. Eng Lim Goh, Senior Vice President of Data & AI, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
EITN: How does the lack of data maturity stifle growth and innovation for businesses in Asia Pacific?
Dr. Goh: When organisations are unable to fully leverage data and analytics, it can hinder their progress when it comes to achieving a wide range of key business outcomes across areas such as sales, customer experience, sustainability, and internal efficiency.
Indeed, according to a recent HPE survey of 8,600 decision makers, organisations in APAC cited “sales growth” and “innovation” as the top two negative effects of the lack of data capabilities. It is notable that in Singapore – a leading R&D hub for the region and the world – 40% of organisations said that the lack of data maturity is negatively impacting their ability to innovate. This further highlights the critical need for Singapore organisations to accelerate their data strategy.
EITN: What are some real-life examples of how data maturity influences growth and innovation?
Dr. Goh: One of our customers, AETOS, a security service provider in Singapore, hosts a digital twin of the entire island of Singapore with 3D rendering of buildings and infrastructure. It makes use of data from a range of sources – including mechanical and engineering systems, sensors, and security cameras – to create a holistic view of city-wide operations. Based on that data , AI models establish fully automated workflows that deliver rapid, accurate updates, replacing the previously manual monitoring of video surveillance networks that had required teams to report through walkie-talkies to a central control.
In healthcare, we are supporting Singapore medtech startup FathomX to develop an AI tool that enables faster and better detection of breast cancer. Using an on-site system that can process huge volumes of medical images in a short amount of time, FathomX can train an AI assistant to conduct initial reading and interpretation of mammograms to free up time for radiologists to focus on critical cases that need more attention. This helps simplify mammogram screening workflow, reduce waiting time for patients and improve the accuracy of breast cancer diagnosis.
EITN: Which industries are leading the data maturity race and why?
Dr. Goh: The HPE survey has identified data maturity levels of different industries in the APAC region based on a maturity model that assesses data value creation based on strategic, organisational and technological criteria. The maturity levels are data anarchy (1), data reporting (2), data insights (3), data centricity (4) and data economics (5) where “data anarchy” means organisations are not at all systematic in analysing data, and “data economics” represents companies that are strategically leveraging both internal and external data to create outcomes.
According to the model, the IT and financial services industries in APAC are leading with a data maturity score of 3.0 (data insights). It’s not surprising that these industries are leading because data and data technologies have always been at the heart of their business models – but they, too, still have a long way to go to reach the highest level. Moreover, it’s crucial to understand that going forward, all industries will become data-driven. Advancing data maturity will be key to ensuring the future viability of any organisation. This can be even harder for industries like manufacturing with its 2.6 data maturity score, or retail which is currently at 2.4.
EITN: What are the barriers in using data and analytics?
Dr. Goh: The biggest barrier our research identified in the APAC region is organisational culture. Most organisations have been focused on selling physical products or personal services for years or decades. As a result, data reporting and data analytics were primarily treated as a regulatory necessity and a supporting function.
This view is deeply rooted in the mindsets and behaviours of the entire organisation which makes it very hard to move to a model where data is treated as a key driver of competitive advantage. Other key barriers identified by our research – such as lack of top-management support and lack of budget – are closely related to this lack of data culture.
EITN: What are the next steps businesses can take to succeed?
Dr. Goh: There are no shortcuts towards achieving higher data maturity levels. Doing so requires a holistic change which touches virtually all facets of an organisation. In years past, “cloud first” has been the mantra of CIOs when describing their digitisation strategy. Now they must replace “cloud first” with “data first” — meaning that they align their strategic, organisational, technological and platform choices with the overarching goal of leveraging data as a strategic asset.
One of the key consequences of this approach is a new cloud platform strategy. Organisations need to establish an edge-to-cloud architecture that provides the freedom to choose the correct location for their data, while providing one unified model to orchestrate across edges, data centres and clouds. This enables organisations to control their data assets while industrialising their data supply chain at the same time.
Operationally, the first step on a data-first transformation journey should be a relentless inventory — not only of an organisation’s overall data maturity level, but of its specific weaknesses and strengths vis-à-vis its business strategy. An assessment based on a data maturity model is a solid starting point. This allows organizations to tailor their plans and management-of-change approach to their individual gaps, goals and requirements.
