KPMG’s recent Global CEO Outlook will tell you how important accurate, quality data is in growing and protecting revenue. However, far too many B2B enterprise companies’ data is hidden and siloed in disparate systems across multiple departments. Many of these companies are looking to AI + Big Data technology initiatives to get to this valuable data. Our CEO, Praful, will tell you that won’t work.
After years of uncovering key data for big enterprise, KPMG’s CEO Outlook that surveyed 1,261 CEOs worldwide, confirms what we know: That in order to utilize data and effectively identify revenue growth opportunities or revenue leakage, that data needs tobe readily available, accurate, complete and actionable.
“Ongoing success relies on good-quality data and 45% [of CEOs] say their customer insight is hindered by a lack of quality data.“ – KPMG Disrupt and Grow, 2017 Global CEO Outlook
We know this to be true because for the last ten years we’ve helped Fortune 500 companies like Comcast Business, HPE, and Microsoft, uncover their key customer data through an approach that offers results in months, not years.
KPMG’s report is full of great insights about CEOs and their businesses. We of course, looked at it through our lens. Here’s what we found:
KPMG: “Ongoing success relies on good-quality data and close to half (45%) say their customer insight is hindered by a lack of quality data.”
If you can’t find data and then curate and synthesize it in a way that provides useful insights, it’s simply not “quality data”. What you need is the right, key data, not all data. And you need to look at it across your systems, not within each system. You have to think about your data differently or you’ll have data chaos.
KPMG: “More than half (56%) are concerned about the data they are basing decisions on”
Most everyone understands good decisions rely on clean, accurate, and complete data, but most companies don’t have it and moreover, struggle mightily to get it.
KPMG: “CEOs are spending more on technology-led innovation as they want to manage a new challenging climate.”
CEOs are investing in Big Data and AI solutions now more than ever. While these solutions can be powerful for solving some data problems, the truth is that big data + AI technology often cannot harness the necessary data useful for company executives to make informed decisions.
KPMG: “Data has become much more near-term and can be predicted more easily. Now it’s not about how much data you have, it’s how predictive that data can be”
We could not agree more, and slowly the light is going on with big enterprise. But still, too many are throwing technology or people at their data problem, and not looking at it as systemic issue across their CPQ, CLM, Billing and other systems. And again, Big Data + AI solutions attempt to solve this data chaos problem, but are typically unable to extract critical and accurate information.
KPMG: “38% express concern that they are not using digital as effectively as they could to connect with customers”
To improve your competitive edge, it’s crucial to have all the necessary, key data on your customers, but that requires you to digitize data locked in contracts and other commercial agreements.
In our own BAO study, nearly half of the surveyed executives reported a high proportion of their commercial relationships were complex, and that they were looking to take action to drive more value from their data and embrace it’s complexity.
Data is complex, and companies are slowly understanding that they need find new ways to harness and use it. Make no mistake, it’s do or die to order to stay competitive in the digital age.