You don’t need the most advanced and emerging technologies to set your data strategy, resource, and investment plans. You just need to be smarter about your data and generate live-action solution experiences to be resilient, elastic, fast, and enable real growth.

Over the last 10 years, we’ve watched big data, cloud, advanced analytics, and now AI and machine learning drive increased data platform investment. Yet there wasn’t any real change from traditional data strategy and approaches. The evidence? Massive blind spots and hardened data arteries in the disruption of COVID-19. We were looking back, even when we were looking forward to predict and meet market demands. 

Even as companies seek to advance their machine-learning and analytics plans to address model weaknesses, it comes back to the age-old problem of data. Data is not oil. It is not exhaust or fog. It’s time to not just say data is an asset. We need to recognize that it is digital. It is our business, even before we get to analytics and insight. And it is our vaccine to chaos. 

The future of data isn’t three years, five years, or 10 years out. You don’t need the most advanced and emerging technologies to set your data strategy, resource, and investment plans. You just need to be smarter about your data and generate live-action solution experiences to be resilient, elastic, fast, and enable real growth. 

You must transition or be left behind. This isn’t hyperbole. Enterprises that aren’t able to put data at the heart of their resilience are failing and closing. You don’t have to be the small restaurant or hairdresser on Main St. Large retailers, commercial property firms, CPG companies, and appliance manufacturing are all under massive disruption from production, supply chain, and new customer expectations for fulfillment and safety. Even if things are to go back to normal, the expectations for customer experience being developed today are going to stay. It’s time to keep up. 

WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN FOR YOU? 

Join me at our Data Strategy and Insights Forum for the new approach and practice of data. I’ll be sharing real-world examples of how strong data foundations help companies and governments get out of chaos and thrive in chaos. You’ll come to understand the five areas that make data your business core to: 

• Go beyond digital twins with immersive experiences. 
• See data and insights as one and the same. 
• Embrace your nerd game. 
• Operationalize data for doing. 
• Structure data for business and technology elasticity. 

This post was written by VP, Principal Analyst Michele Goetz, and it originally appeared here.