The future offers interesting and exciting times ahead for most businesses. With data being a big influencer in the enterprise of the future, it is a matter of time before we jump into the era of intelligent enterprises.
Intelligent enterprises are going to be organizations that offer exemplary customer experience and have an efficient operations procedure. The ability to give clients what they want throughout their experience with an organization is what separates an intelligent enterprise apart from the others.
With competition between organizations expected to increase with the passage of time, an intelligent enterprise would be a need of the hour. Organizations would want to work efficiently in production and to deliver the most to customers across their experience.
Ronald van Loon recently had the opportunity to attend SAP Sapphire and speak to some of the most renowned Chief Data Officers (CDO) from across the globe. As part of this venture, both SAP and Ronald van Loon got a lot to learn about the data culture of today, and how the intelligent enterprise of the future can be built through a data fabric.
Main Challenges CDOs Face
CDOs currently face numerous challenges when it comes to building a proper intelligent enterprise. While the prospects and the aims from the intelligent enterprise of the future are clear in theory, the process for achieving these goals is a bit complicated right now.
Some of the challenges that CDOs currently face are:
Data Silos
The Chief Data Officers at the conference believed that a data silo is one of their major challenges. Data silos impede progress towards intelligent enterprise, and CDOs must look for alternative solutions.
To minimize the damage caused by data silos, organizations need to curate a proper master data management plan. The plan is meant to foster increased results from the data at hand, and to ensure that these results are coherent with the overall plans.
Data Quality
Data quality is another problem troubling CDOs in today’s world. Chief Data Officers feel that the analytics generated from data would only be as good as the data on hand. So, it is imperative for data to be high quality, and to have proper definition. You can increase or ensure quality by playing with the source of your data.
Data Migration
Leading the data you currently have towards the world of integration can come with certain problems. For starters, gathering all your data at a single, integrated source is something that many organizations are unable to do. The inability to create a single source can then lead to the creation of silos.
Additionally, the data you currently have might be positioned for legacy systems. Updating the type of data can be a tough ask, knowing that you will ultimately have to use it for integration purposes.
Data Volume and Variety
The volume and variety of the data coming through from different sources can be quite intimidating. The sheer volume of the several data types requires proper data analytics mechanisms to ensure you can make some sense out of all of this data.
Understanding a Data Fabric
A data fabric is the culmination of everything required for generating actionable insights from the data you have. The data should be simple and it must have one source. It should also be intelligent so that it can be used immediately. Finally, the analytics should be fast, so that there is a reduced time to cut risks associated with depletion.
Core Items Needed for Building an Intelligent Enterprise
The process towards building an intelligent enterprise starts with the introduction of the following core items:
Get Rid of Silos
Getting rid of silos is crucial; it will free up your data resources, and make management of the cloud easier for your organization. You should ensure that all your company data is accessible through one particular source, without any issues whatsoever. By accessing all data through one particular source, you cut down on all inefficiencies and make sure that you are able to speed up the analytics process.
A combination of a cloud, hybrid and on premise solution is for most organizations a prerequisite due to all existing systems. It offers fast access to your all of your enterprise data, and positions it in one place for you to see.
Centralize Governance and Ensure Data Quality
Data governance is extremely important for an intelligent enterprise. Focus your data management at the source, and make sure that you have quality data inflow coming your way. You can also practice data enrichment methods as part of centralized governance. Data enrichment will help give you superior quality data, without any irregularities whatsoever.
Data quality is an important metric in the overall success of the plan, as it can help put your business in getting the perfect results from the analytics. Your analytics will only be as good as the data you pour into your systems. Poor quality data will ultimately lead to poor analytics, which would then lead to poor quality decisions. The whole process can be at risk of being derailed if the data that you initially put into the system cannot be trusted for quality.
Data Warehouse in the Cloud
All your business users should be able to access all of the data within your organization in a governed environment. Your business users should also be able to dig deep into a granular level for further understanding of the data and the systems in play.
You can follow some of the renowned examples from the industry here to get a template for what is required of you. With the right moves, you can secure an intelligent enterprise of your choice.
Intelligence
Intelligence is one of the core requirements of an intelligent enterprise. This includes the presence of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence systems that help you in making decisions that benefit your cause. This intelligence can augment your drive towards an intelligent enterprise for the future and can ensure that you’re on track to achieve your goals.
How Does a Data Fabric Solve Key Issues for CDOs?
A data fabric can help solve all the key issues complicating the work required from a CDO. To begin, data fabric will help minimize the presence of data silos. Centralized forms of government will grant fast access and limit secluded data. Additionally, the presence of metadata management will perform the required quality checks and ensure the provision of quality data that can be trusted above anything else.
Moreover, we may also see organizations find the ability to handle all kinds of varieties and volume of data without any complications whatsoever. This will lead to minimization in data migration implications.
Developments in the Market
SAP HANA Cloud Services | Business Data Platform for the Intelligent Enterprise
SAP launched their enterprise data fabric at Sapphire. It supports companies and their Chief Data Officers in launching a companywide management plan for data in the cloud, hybrid cloud and on premise. The centralization of data helps with the management and creation of an efficient plan of operations. Since efficiency is the most sought after result from the intelligent enterprise of the future, a data fabric will help get you the desired results. Business users have real time, easy and governed access, with real time data anonymization capabilities, to all enterprise data via a data warehouse in the cloud. Fast access and processing is supported by SAP Hana in memory data base and it’s new persistent 6TB memory. This efficiency and intelligence will allow you to give customers their desired experience across the user cycle.
Learn more about intelligent data management and other related details by clicking here.
