Are you data-ready or in data-despair?

Based on the results of a study performed between June 12, 2024, and Aug. 7, 2024 by PYMTS and Caret from Fiserv of 390 grocery and non-grocery retail executives from companies with 2023 revenues of over $500M, there is a crucial link between data readiness and financial performance.

The report revealed that data-ready—defined as “the ability to access data that is accurate, timely, secure and in a format that supports decision-making”—grocery and non-grocery retailers are outperforming their less prepared non-data-ready counterparts, for example:

• Data-ready companies reported more than five times greater revenue growth in the year prior to being surveyed.
• Grocers with company-wide analytics teams experienced almost double the average revenue increase versus those companies without such teams.

The report uncovered that more than half of the companies operate in silos. This negatively impacts the ability to share data and form holistic perspectives on performance. 

There is also a real-time data gap, with over 65% of the companies lacking access to real-time data even though 70% of the respondents said it was critical to their decision-making capabilities.

Clearly, fragmented operations and lack of timely data are the two greatest hinderances to data readiness. I would also submit that legacy systems are playing their part here in hindering companies from being as data-ready as they would like to be.

The report concludes that without the ability to be data-ready, companies lack the ability to innovate, grow their customer base, and efficiently manage their supply chains. 

Data is the stuff that composes transactions that flow through software systems that support business operations. If the data isn’t accurate, is missing, or its source of truth is in dispute, that’s a problem that’s going to call into question the trustworthiness of the software system, and it’s going to hamper any ability to create reliable analysis and actionable insights.  

Data is therefore the foundation upon which everything else is built in business.  If you don’t focus on this first, you’re probably going to end up last. 

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