Snowflake: businesses struggle to succeed in data economy

A recent report by data company, Snowflake, titled ‘How to Win in Today’s Data Economy’ found that only 6% of businesses global use, access and share data in a way that allows them to succeed in the data economy and gain access to all the benefits provided by a robust data strategy. 

This study of 1,000 businesses leaders and technology managers shows the significant hurdles that still remain that many organisations face when participating fully in the data economy. 

As defined by Snowflake, the data economy anbles businesses to tackle complex business problems while elevating the services they can offer above their competitors. It also allows companies to build new revenue streams by taking tailored data products and services to their customers, partners, and any other organisation participating in the data economy.

“Successful organisations will attain the business advantage that comes from access to data, data services, solutions, and collaboration - which can only be found in the Data Economy.” said Jennifer Belissent, Principal Data Strategist at Snowflake. 

“Forward-thinking organisations are using all that the Data Economy offers to solve the most complex business problems, improve customer experiences and crackdown on fraud. The Laggards that don’t yet have control over all of the data they possess will find themselves falling behind of the competition, and potentially at increased risk of security threats,” she adds.

Defining Data Economy Leaders with Snowflake

In the study, Snowflake  identified the four key attributes an organisation needs to possess to become a Data Economy Leader. These attributes include:

• Unimpeded access to data, no matter where it resides 
• Using data to inform all or most business decisions 
• Using data to advance strategic goals, such as growing revenue and identifying new business opportunities 
• The ability to share data securely with external partners. 

At the helm of the data economy, Data Economy Leaders are involved in developing strategies that democratise access to data, integrate new technology, and demonstrate the true business benefits of capitalising in the data economy. 

Although many companies have ambitions to take advantage of data to give them the business edge needed to be successful, the study found that these organisations require guidance to lay the right foundations.

According to Snowflake’s study, only 38% of businesses are in a position to extract value from their data and use it to inform the decisions they make. 

Snowflake’s research also found that those organisations that do possess the four attributes of a Data Economy Leader achieve significantly more than those that don’t use, access or share data in the ways outlined.

Snowflake: overcoming people, processes and technology barriers to succeed in the data economy

‘How to Win in Today’s Data Economy’ also found 77% of Data Economy Leaders experienced annual revenue growth over the past three years, while just 36% of ‘Laggards’, the lowest-performing businesses surveyed, can say the same. 

On top of this, 60% of Leaders saw their market share grow over this period, compared to only 31% of Laggards. 

“The barriers stopping Laggards from fully participating in the Data Economy can be split into three key areas; technology, people and process,” continues Belisssent. 

“Most of these organisations are still using legacy on-premises technology which is not scalable or suitable for modern data needs. In addition,  their leaders lack the skills required to create and execute their data strategies, and are unable to implement processes that enable them to share and collaborate on data. In contrast, Leaders are capitalising on data platforms in the cloud. They have strong, data-literate leadership that encourages an enterprise-wide approach to data innovation and have established processes that make their data mutually available.”

People, processes and technology are the most significant stopping organisations from participating in the data economy, with 49% of respondents believing they lack a C-level mandate to become a ‘data-forward’ organisation.

Sadly, the businesses that are not using their data to its full potential are being left behind the competition that are using data to strategically support the company and make critical business decisions, according to Snowflake.

But, for those organisations who use data to make critical business decisions, 42% use data to identify risk and prevent fraud, 41% use it to launch new revenue streams or pricing models and 40% do to reveal new market opportunities.