About nine in every 10 (89%) of Singapore businesses are experiencing barriers to capturing, analysing and acting on data while IT spending surged by 116% over the past three years, according to a study commissioned by Dell Technologies.
Conducted by Forrester Consulting, the study found that almost half (49%) of Singapore firms reported not coming close to realising their digital transformation goals
Instead of offering a competitive advantage, data has become a burden to businesses because of constantly needing more data than their current capabilities provide (74%); outdated IT infrastructure (55%); insufficient in-house data science skills (71%); resistance to change from internal teams (71%) and; cyber-attacks and data loss (46%).
“This ‘Data Paradox’ is driven by the volume, velocity and variety of data overwhelming businesses, technology, people and processes,” said Andy Sim, Dell Technologies VP and managing director in Singapore.
“The pandemic has already created a sense of urgency and the Singapore findings indicate that there is an acute awareness of the need for better data leadership,” said Sim.
Singapore businesses believe their organisations have improved by turning data into actionable insights. For example, Singapore reports higher gains over both global and APJ in a deeper understanding of existing customers and target audiences (53%) and how to improve employee experience (56%).
Although Singapore businesses are struggling today, 77% intend to deploy machine learning to automate how they detect anomaly data and 60% are planning to improve the data lakes that they have.
“These plans point to top organisational goals for deploying a data as-a-service management strategy,” said Sim. More than half or “53% of Singapore businesses believe that with an aaS model, businesses would no longer be held back by outdated IT infrastructure.”
With aaS, 69% of local businesses plan to monetise their data to find success. As a result, 74% believe it would enable companies to be more agile.
In addition, 44% are also doing data modelling to predict changing customer demands during the pandemic.
Dell Technologies recommends three ways through which businesses can turn their data burden into a data advantage — modernising their IT infrastructure; optimising data pipelines and; developing software to deliver the personalised, integrated experiences customers crave.
