‘Data Stack Evolution: Legacy Challenges and AI Innovation’, a global report which included a survey of 350 UK IT decision-makers, found that three in five UK firms (61%) said their data leadership and IT teams work in complete silo. Almost a fifth (16%) admitted that there is no collaboration between these teams whatsoever, blocking the sharing of data and knowledge to achieve new data analytics use cases.

The report revealed that this lack of cohesion between data and IT teams is having a knock-on effect on how other lines of business work with data. Many IT leaders indicate that data is kept within the department it was generated by (46%) and that each company department is responsible for managing its data (40%).

Part of the problem is that there is little consensus on where the responsibility for data processes lies. For example, the report uncovered a 50/50 split amongst respondents about whether data quality management should sit within the IT team’s remit (45%) or the data leadership team’s (45%). Similarly, 44% of IT leaders see managing and processing large datasets and databases as a data leadership task, while 41% say it is the responsibility of IT teams.

This lack of ownership is also translating into a lack of data culture. Just a quarter (25%) of IT decision-makers said they are prioritising data consistency across sources to ensure high-quality, value-adding data. Further, governance policies and strategies that cover the distribution of data are only in place in 17% of UK firms, pointing to a lack of data democratisation.

Alan Jacobson, Chief Data and Analytics Office at Alteryx, said: “The full potential of data analytics cannot be unlocked without a centralised strategy and chain of command. Businesses that are still relying on fragmented operations and reactive analytics on an IT project basis risk getting left in their competitors’ dust as the opportunity to drive real transformation is simply not there. Aligning data science with overall strategic corporate direction and embedding a data culture across the organisation, enables multi-domain problem-solving through shared datasets and insights. With this approach, organisations can reach the analytics maturity needed to unlock new use cases that drive innovation.”