Data not a priority for Indian businesses, despite growing tech adoption

Although 74% of businesses in India claim to be data driven, but only 24% in the country have testified to treating data as capital and prioritising its use across businesses, according to a study by Dell Technologies and Forrester Consulting.

71% of Indian respondents also cited a need for more data, although 82% admit they have more data than they can handle. This is compared to globally where 70% claim to have bitten off more than they can chew from the data pie.

Data seems to have become more of a burden to Indian businesses, mostly because barriers such as data skills gap, data silos, archaic processes and a lack of modern security protocols exist.

“They need to juggle getting more data as well as better mine data better. Particularly now, with 44% globally and in APJ saying the pandemic significantly increased the amount of data they need to collect, store, and analyse,” Amit Midha, president, Asia Pacific and Japan and Global Digital Cities, Dell Technologies, said.

The survey was conducted on more than 4,000 decision makers spanning 45 countries. Although the exact number of Indians survey was not disclosed, 1000 of the respondents were from 9 APAC countries, more specifically, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and India.

Building on the previous Digital Transformation Index studies commissioned by Dell, the current study showed that the problem of being unable to extract insights from data was the second biggest barrier in the digital transformation journeys of companies in our country. About five years ago, this problem of being unable to make use of data was at 12th place.

The report stated that 82% of Indian businesses are yet to progress in terms of their data technology, skills and data culture. This also explained why 18% if Indian businesses were defined as ‘Data Champions’, although a lesser percentage (12%) were classified as data champions globally.

Coming to why Indian companies are gathering data faster than they can handle, 65% of companies seem to be holding a significant amount of their data on-premise, despite options such as storing it on the cloud or the edge.  60% of respondents also cited that their management/board did not possess the technical skills to manage a data lake. While 63% said they possessed a glut of data that cannot meet security and compliance requirements.

“They need to focus on data driven mind-set, which will enable them to secure insights from the huge of amount of data being generated, helping them fast-track their digital journeys,” Ripu Bajwa, director and general manager, Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies, India, said.