It can’t be disputed that data is fundamental to the success of any business in the digital economy. But managing and leveraging data is never straightforward. In the Harvey Nash digital leadership report, only 24% felt that their organisation was gaining commercially from their data. So, what is going wrong? And how do you make data the lifeblood of your business?

Data is everywhere and the volume of it that the world now collects and generates is unheard of in human history. However, not every business captures and utilises data in the most successful way. While many may romanticise that the best business decisions are based on risk and gut instinct, decisions based on reliable and well-presented data can drive an organisation towards its full potential. As discussed in our article earlier this year, data is a key business differentiator when keeping up with fast changing technology, enabling organisations to assess current situations, identify patterns, predict trends and outline appropriate approaches.

But despite the inspirational discussions about the many exciting ways we could be using data, there appears to be very little knowledge about how to implement them. Too often, data is siloed, disparate, inaccurate or inaccessible. A report by the IDC found that organisations were only collecting 56% of the data available to them and of the 43% that was collected most was left unleveraged. So how can businesses fix their data challenges before it becomes unmanageable or they start to miss crucial opportunities and threats?