Companies Need to Move from Era of Dark Data towards Efficient Data Management Strategy

Social media is no longer limited to keeping in touch with loved ones through the Internet. Thanks to the dawn of affordable data plans and smartphones, right from shopping, paying bills and even loan transactions, almost every process all over the world has moved online. While this has done a world of good by accumulating data, which has lead to the birth of new age technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT, it has also lead to a ‘Data Explosion’ that needs to be addressed.

Data Management Strategy

Companies need to have an efficient data management strategy and spend some time analyzing their data, says Mr Dave R Padmos, EY Global Technology and EY West Region Advisory Leader. “Lot of data that exists is called Dark Data, they (companies) don’t even know where it is or what it is. We suggest our clients to come up with a strategy to understand their data and this strategy has to turn into a data management process,” he says, as now there is more data when compared to 30 years ago and will continue to accumulate.

The data management strategy, Mr Padmos says, needs to include segmenting data in a way the companies understand the value of the data. “Not all the data is treated equal. You have to manage the PII type information, more specific type of information, the information that you don’t want to be shared and is meant to be protected versus the IoT data,” he adds.

Companies need to also focus on having a ‘Chief Data Architect’ if they truly want to move into the ‘Digital Age’, which is already here. “10 years from now data will be the new oil. If you as a company don’t have good data management and strategy I don’t think you will be very competitive,” said Mr Padmos.

Cybersecurity: The Number One Concern Related To Data

Cybersecurity is also a number one concern when it comes to data. “Almost everybody is saving everything as it is cost effective to do that but nobody is going back and cleaning up their data. It’s super important to figure out a way to protect and encrypt the data that is valuable and you are going to have to have instate encryption solutions because you never know where that data is going to end up, it is virtually impossible to control it. So, companies need to secure the data that is important and not worry about the rest just to make it cost effective,” states Mr Padmos rightly.

How Companies Are Leveraging Data As Of Now

Industry leaders are currently leveraging data efficiently to come up with new business models and the disruptors/intermediaries that are coming in are doing it efficiently as they don’t have a legacy system challenge to deal with; they are developing data analytics as their core competencies. “Data analytics can be used to connect with suppliers and customers more efficiently. A soon as you figure out your data and understand what you want to do with it, machines can then handle it. But what we are doing now is paying engineers, lawyers and financial professionals a lot of money to manage data on spreadsheets. Automation can do this as long as you invest in the frontend,” he adds.

Any company that is architecting data that they already have to enable new, different and good business outcomes are doing the right thing, feels Mr Padmos. “Netflix did something with their data made their processes simple, developed engine to make recommendations and grow their consumer base. And Amazon has the most bots of any company, over a 125000 bots. These companies are fully embracing data and making it a mission critical aspect of running their business, which means they will pull in the right partners, right technologies, they’ll retrain people, make the right acquisitions and hires to develop that,” he says.

Careers That The Rise of Data Era Will Create

Mr Padmos also feels that Data Scientists will be one of the most desirable professions. “We are already finding it every hard to find deep, qualified data scientists,” he adds. Programmers, testers, business analysts will also be required in the coming years. Business architect who can engineer data solutions are also highly in demand.