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Australia leading APAC in data readiness
Mon, 16th Dec 2019
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Tableau Software has released the results of its Asia Pacific Data Readiness Index (DRI) developed together with IDC.

The DRI reveals that leading data-ready organisations in Asia Pacific (APAC) produced an average of 90% better business outcomes than laggards.

Despite this, only 20% of businesses are in the leading band with a majority in the developing (66%) and lagging (14%) bands.

In contrast, Australian organisations have experienced greater business improvements (+22%) compared to the regional average (+17%) and almost half are in the leading band.

The survey highlights that people-related traits like employee data skills and organisation-wide collaboration are seen as key performance drivers.

More than 700 organisations in APAC were surveyed across five dimensions to determine their state of data readiness and indexed into three bands, leading, developing, and lagging.

Data readiness refers to an organisation's capability to make data central to their business through the widespread adoption of analytics.

APAC results are published in IDC's Executive Insights report, Data Readiness: Business Impact for the Digital Era, and Australian highlights are published in IDC's Australian Highlights Executive Insights report, Data Readiness: Business Impact for the Digital Era - Australian Highlights.

“Australian organisations are at the forefront of leveraging data to drive innovation in APAC,” says Tableau APAC technology evangelist Mac Bryla.

“However, today's rapidly evolving business landscape commands a need for organisations to become truly data-driven in order to sustain their innovation.  Our recently launched Tableau Blueprint helps our customers adopt a holistic yet tailored approach along this data-driven journey,

"The DRI captures an organisation's ability to harness its data to secure enterprise KPIs,”  adds IDC Asia Pacific analytics, big data and artificial intelligence associate vice president Dr. Chris Marshall.

“We see big differences in DRI across functions and industries throughout Asia. The factors that drive DRI like skills, leadership, technology, governance, and process also vary widely. These reveal some valuable lessons for business leaders about the initiatives to prioritise in particular circumstances."

Australia leading the way

According to the survey, Australia is one of the most data-ready markets in the region and organisations are outperforming the average scores in all five dimensions.

The findings suggest that Australian organisations are developing a cycle of innovation and strong business improvements are encouraging continued investment in data and analytics initiatives. 

However, the survey also reveals a gap between the implementation of people-related and process factors which have scores of 4.0 and above, and that of technology and governance of 2.9 and 2.4 respectively.

The report recommends that Australian organisations should leverage technology and adopt an integrated model for data governance to sustain their innovation and drive growth.

Overall, Singapore (52%) and Australia (49.5%) have the largest number of organizations leading the way.

India has the most organizations that are lagging behind (30%).

APAC markets rank as follows on the index:

Markets average DRI score

  1. Australia – 3.54
  2. Singapore – 3.52
  3. Japan – 2.74
  4. South Korea – 2.69
  5. Hong Kong – 2.67
  6. China – 2.64
  7. India – 2.51

To help organisations navigate the challenges of becoming data ready, Tableau launched its Tableau Blueprint, a strategic framework with concrete plans, recommendations, and guidelines.