Enterprise Mindsets About Data Are Changing

Give me a dashboard. Give me a report. Give me better insights. If that’s your approach, it’s old-school and you’re falling behind. Leading enterprises have shifted their data sensibilities to action-oriented insights. “Interesting” is no longer the standard for business insights efforts. Instead, insights projects must draw a straight line from business objectives to business outcomes.

Seems obvious . . . MBA 101, right? Unfortunately, many business insights organizations let whimsical stakeholder requests drive their efforts. No more, Forrester predicts. To be successful, business insights professionals must focus their efforts on the business outcomes that matter most. Therefore, the themes of Forrester’s business insights predictions for 2019 are:

  • The data economy will fail without a “fail fast, succeed faster” mindset.
  • Business insights professionals must become data storytellers.
  • Dashboards are for drivers, but we are fast living in a driverless world.
  • Data governance, until now a buzzkill, will become ambient and enabling.
  • Swamped data lakes will become virtual, because lakes too quickly become murky.

Bottom line: Forrester sees the mindset changing from data and analytics untethered to outcomes to become action-oriented analytics that helps enterprises win.

2019 is the year that transformation goes pragmatic. To understand the 14 major dynamics that will impact firms next year, download Forrester’s Predictions 2019 guide.