Integrating Apps for Actionable Insight

In a recent blog, I outlined how data is the oil of the business engine, and when fully integrated, it can deliver powerful insight. In…

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June 7, 20195 minutes read

Integrating Apps for Actionable Insight
Integrating Apps for Actionable Insight

In a recent blog, I outlined how data is the oil of the business engine, and when fully integrated, it can deliver powerful insight. In a second blog I discussed how to unleash the power of combined data with a collaborative approach.

In this blog, we will explore how proper technology can help enterprises integrate their apps and deliver accurate data for timely and actionable information.

We will be running a webinar with Forrester on June 25 to discuss how to overcome data integration and management challenges. Register here.

Organizations are drowning with data

Companies in every industry are overwhelmed with data—and more is arriving at warped speed. Crucially, once they have it, they do not know exactly what action to take from it, resulting in idle data. Industry experts at Forrester indicate that up to 70% of data within an enterprise goes unused. Most businesses are skilled at capturing data, but not necessarily integrating all of it or translating it into actionable information.

Good News: Technology is a powerful catalyst

How can organizations make use of all the data to make day-to-day decisions, for example, by collecting the data and then predicting and eliminating downtime? With proven technology, companies can eliminate down-time and increase productivity. Could they use all data to track downtime and determine potential break down?

Fortunately, such a technology platform is available today and can enable businesses. If organizations integrate all data via an integrated platform, they can deploy predictive maintenance and gain insights from patterns in the available data. With such an approach, companies can detect anomalies in the data before they lead to costly downtime and thus increase productivity.

If these industries deployed learning-based anomaly detection, they could reduce potential downtime and realize significant financial benefits. For example, the aviation industry could reduce total airplane ground downtime. The manufacturing industry could significantly reduce its scrap production. And the oil and gas industry could better address offshore asset breakdowns to maintain higher production levels.

So, what’s keeping organizations from adopting relevant technologies?

Let’s take a closer look. For one, organizations are severely affected by two distinct forces.

Proliferation of Data Sources and Inherent Risks

A recent Forbes article speaks to how data is the real currency today. Forward thinking organizations perceive data as a strategic asset and successfully build a data-driven culture. Consequently, when they integrate all data, they achieve clear visibility across silos which helps them cut costs and operate efficiently, launch new products and services, identify new revenue channels and ultimately achieve strategic business objectives.

Sounds simple enough, right? So why are so many organizations unable to use all of the data? There is an explosion of data sources that every organization must learn to manage. Until very recently, every business function created its own data repository with a unique application. All combined at the division level, that led to this huge proliferation of data sources. Fast forward to this digital age, where business unit leaders try to make sense of the data in an integrated way. Managing all these data sources—both on paper and in cyberspace—now remains a complex task. What’s causing further grief is the scarcity of resources that can effectively absorb and translate this data into meaningful insight. Fact remains, collecting all the right data is one thing, but making it useful and applicable requires a different skill and mindset.

Existing Integration Infrastructure Not Keeping Pace

Another important impediment to integration is the variety of infrastructure deeply entrenched within large organizations. Legacy solutions are valuable, but inflexible and just not set-up to handle big data or unstructured data. Propriety frameworks come with vendor lock-ins, leading to data islands. Finally, there is the home-grown version of apps, created in response to one-off last-minute executive request and have now become indispensable. The net impact of all these factors mean lack of end-to-end visibility across data silos. Consequently, a simple request from a compliance officer or an executive is resource and time-consuming and ultimately slow for action.

93% of firms (in this study) believe the operational and technical challenges with their integration strategies result in serious business repercussions, like revenue loss, losing customers to competitors, and difficulty optimizing processes.”

– Forrester Research, March 2019

So, how can integrating data and apps deliver value?

Integration is about managing data complexity, streamlining connections, and making it easy to deliver data to any system. So, why aren’t more organizations taking the necessary steps to integrate all the data? For one, integration means combining information from various sources into something useful. It’s about efficiently managing data and making it available to those who need it, and this is both a technical and a business process.

Join this webinar to find out how, with a proven technology platform, you can flawlessly integrate apps to tackle complex data management challenges.

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OpenText

OpenText, The Information Company, enables organizations to gain insight through market-leading information management solutions, powered by OpenText Cloud Editions.

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