In the Absence of Fact - Stephen Harris

Confidential │ ©2019 VMware, Inc.
“In The Absence of
Facts”
Stephen Harris
VP & Head of Enterprise Data and Analytics
18 November 2019

2Confidential │ ©2019 VMware, Inc.
“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways. Gradually, then
suddenly.”
Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

Businesses have more information available to them
now than ever before. But more data does not mean
more insights or more successful business strategies.
Many companies struggle to turn data into valuable
insights because of siloed, incomplete, or inaccurate
governance of data often contributing to the absence
of facts
Data is everywhere

©2019 VMware, Inc. 4
What does the data tell you?
Did we land on the moon?

“Facts” not just “data”
The Basics: Define “it”
“A thing that is known or proved to be true”
Definition of fact
1a: something that has actual existence space
exploration is now a fact
b: an actual occurrence prove the fact of damage
2: a piece of information presented as having objective
reality These are the hard facts of the case.
3: the quality of being actual : ACTUALITY a question
of fact hinges on evidence

Decisions Driven by DataDecisions driven by Opinion
Come from organization veterans who know
everything about their industry that they only
need to know.
Data can tell them nothing they do not
already know.
It’s how they’ve always done it. But they
believe each decision is the right step.
Places value on the data derived from
interactions with customers, partners,
employees, industry experts, competitors.
It learns from these interactions and makes
decisions on those learnings.
Not on what they thought they learned.
Organisations have their own moon-shots
Are you data or opinion lead?

Absence of Fact:
Our inability to know something that is known, or proven to be true.

NewVantage Partners’ 2019 Big Data and AI Executive Survey,
90% of those who completed the survey are “C-level” executives
72% report that they
have yet to forge a
data culture
69% report that they
have not created a
data-driven
organization
53% state that they
are not yet treating
data as a business
asset
52% admit that they
are not competing on
data and analytics.
88% report a greater
urgency to invest in
big data and AI
75% cite a fear of
disruption as a
motivating factor
Chief Data Officers
grow from 12% in
2012 to 68% in 2019
77% report business
adoption of Big
Data/AI initiatives is a
major challenge
93% of respondents
identify people and
process issues as the
obstacle.
40.3% identify lack of
organization
alignment
24% cite cultural
resistance as the
leading factor
Source: NVP Big Data and AI Executive Survey 2019

Absence of fact easily occurs
Leaders
System & Process Challenges (aka – the path of resistance)
Data Collection Methods, Human Error & Bias
Way too much data to make sense of it

Data rich, but knowledge poor

Insights come from many varied sources
Inefficient Data Landscape
Silos of data
Duplication of effort
Individual business
function, project, or
application understanding
No coordination or
collaboration
(all custom)
Duplication of contact, events,
customer data
Missed opportunities
A
B
E
F
?
?
C
?
Business
Insights
Required
D
G
Missing
Data
Lack of Data Governance & Quality = Lack of Trust & Opinion lead decisions
Business Questions Analytics Sources Data Business Insights

“Forrester reports that between
60 percent and 73 percent of
all data within an enterprise
goes unused for analytics.

Data Processing
Decisions
Costly Reputation
Regulation Greater Risk
Fact Gaps, Bad Data and Errors are costly
Open Discussion

Is inefficient data as bad
as a cyber attack?

Closing the Fact Gap

The Harvard Business Review found
that 18% of businesses connect to over 15
data sources and 9% have no idea how
many sources they are currently pulling
data from.
Gartner reports poor data quality costing
organizations an average of $13.3M per year.
Although, 39% don’t know what bad data quality
is costing them, as no one was tracking the
impact.
Data quality effects overall labor productivity by as much
as 20%, and 20-30% of operational expenses are directly
related to bad data.
77% of companies believe they lost revenue because of
inaccurate/incomplete contact data.
The Sources Contributing to Fact Gaps

Signals
A steady state of distraction. The technology tsunami of the
past decade has ushered in an era of unprecedented
convenience.
Decision fatigue. Even the most energetic people don’t have
endless mental energy. Our ability to perform mental tasks and
make decisions wears thin when it’s repeatedly exerted
Lack of input. The Kellogg School recently found that in a
typical meeting, an average of three people do 70% of the
talking.
Multi-tasking. There aren’t many jobs left in the world today
that don’t require at least some multi- tasking.
Emotions. Experiencing frustration, excitement, anger, joy, etc.,
is a fundamental part of the daily human experience.
Analysis Paralysis. While the Information Age has gifted us
with an abundance of information, big data, and metrics,
there’s also no end to the amount of information we can access
Lack of intentional focus on Diverse & inclusion. While D&I is
typically a company focus and goal, is that a practice when it
comes to key decision making

A people and process solution to a data problem
Data Management
Deploy key capabilities to enable
the business
Solving data issues requires a people and
process solution
Design Principles
• Functional Alignment: Data will be aligned to functional domains to enable clear ownership
• Executive Ownership: Executive and senior level roles will establish individual accountabilities
• Transparent Supply Chain: Data quality and consistency will be centrally managed and locally executed
• Streamlined Provisioning: Domains will establish controlled provisioning points for data consumers
• Centralized Master Data: Data common to all domains will be centrally managed and provisioned
Ability to deliver business value is
hampered by our data supply chain
Design Principles

Ensure the accuracy, completeness, and effectiveness of information provided to
executives and senior leaders to drive critical business decisions
Realizing the value of an organized supply chain
Reporting & Analytics
(Data is leveraged for insights)
Aggregation
(Data is stitched and provisioned)
Systems of Record
(Data is consolidated by type)
Systems of Origin
(Data enters the supply chain)
SOO
Physical
Report
SOO
SOO
SOR
SOR
Data Lake /
Warehouse
Dashboard
• Independent quality
assurance testing
• Regular data quality
testing
• Issue identification and
remediation
Quality
• Report ownership and
accountability
• Defined metrics and
data flows
• Data management and
quality scores for
report data sources
Provenance
• Number of regular
users
• Internal or external
focus and audience
levels
• Critical business
process linkage
Risk
• Report production
process controls
• Data movement and
aggregation controls
• Owner review and
attestation
Controls

Gartner
A framework to Trap for Fact Gaps

Communication & Partnerships are key
People Managing Fact Gaps
Business Leaders & Experts Data Scientists & Analysts
Asks a question, suggests
an approach and requests
the data scientist to prove
it
Run a complete analysis
to answer the questions
from the business

Back to Opinions – combined with data
Together let’s draw conclusions from the data findings. We can
confirm if we have the right approach or not.

Let’s also look at alternative ideas or questions we didn’t realize
before analysing the data

If the data supports the original or updated idea, then the
organization will act on it and implement its decision

The data scientists shall then measure the
short/medium and long term impact of the
changes and will follow up with the business
leaders on those impacts and new findings.

Data is
Difficult
Experience
& Expertise
Combine
Opinion &
Fact
Reuse,
Recycle
Trust but Verify

Different parts of the
organization have
common rules, but
different views &
priorities towards
decisions.
Do remember

In the Absence of Fact - Stephen Harris

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to In the Absence of Fact - Stephen Harris

Similar to In the Absence of Fact - Stephen Harris (20)

More from Molly Alexander

More from Molly Alexander (7)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

In the Absence of Fact - Stephen Harris