Guide 2 of 5

Prioritizing Data
and Analytics
Around Value
Guides for Effective Business Decision Making

© 2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GTS_2796078
 Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value

By 2026,
75% of CDAOs who fail to make organizationwide
influence and measurable impact their top priority will
be assimilated into technology functions.
Source: Gartner

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 Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value

Organizations seeking to drive decisions with data first need a data and
analytics (D&A) strategy and operating model able to conceive data-driven Types of Stakeholder Outcomes to Explore
business opportunities. Prioritizing D&A initiatives today means collaboratively identifying the goals
and performance indicators to improve upon, or even transform, based on
Those opportunities include identifying and prioritizing decisions to improve
stakeholder goals and, in particular, the unmet needs that are brand-new
through applying decision intelligence practices, such as decision modeling,
business opportunities.
and using technologies like data fabric, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).
But to optimize decision-making processes and the D&A ecosystem that enables Financial Environmental
them, you’ll need to establish a clear connection between D&A and business Process Objective
Political Legal
Financial
value creation. You can’t succeed if you treat D&A as supportive and secondary Car
Relationship
Role Life
to business initiatives. Life Activity

But prioritizing D&A initiatives around business value can be challenging in Division Need Society

practice. An effective data-driven enterprise grounds strategy and operations Supplier Partner
Employee
Enterprise Customer Investor Ecosystem
in an agreed-upon value proposition, with a vision that relates D&A to the
organization’s business purpose, preferably expressed in terms of customer value.
Internal Stakeholders External Stakeholders

Source: Gartner
Pieter den Hamer
Senior Director Analyst

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 Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value

How to Use This Guide

Prepare
Be explicit about the D&A value
1 Establish 2
Position decision improvement
Engage
Invest in the D&A strategy and
3 Tips for Delivery
Exploit value stream
4
proposition and the intent to as an opportunity for D&A to operating model to deliver on management to enhance
enable better decisions. generate value. the value proposition. D&A’s value delivery.

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Prepare
Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value 1
Be Explicit About the D&A Value Proposition
and the Intent to Enable Better Decisions

Three Basic D&A Value Propositions

These three do not represent a maturity curve. All three are equally capable of delivering business value, and the coexistence of multiple
types of value proposition within a single organization is not only likely but preferable.

Utility Enabler Driver

Our data and analytics should be instantly With data and analytics we enable the business We want D&A to drive the business. Without D&A
available to all, for all purposes — like a utility. to make the right decisions every day. we are blind and see no opportunity.

Success measures relate to service level agreement Success measures relate to business KPIs, such as: Success measures relate to innovation, such as:
management, such as:
• How much did the conversion rate improve after • What is the split between discovery exercises that
• What is the availability of the platform? implementing a new campaign management lead to no new insights, that lead to optimization
analytics tool? insights and that lead to transformative insights (e.g.,
• Is it quick and easy to access the available data,
50%:40%:10%)?
for a variety of purposes? • How much money are we saving because of
Internet of Things (IoT) data and analytics? • How much new revenue (through new D&A-enabled
• How long does it take to add a new data source
products and services) is being generated by D&A
or data access API? • How much money are we saving because of
initiatives?
improved fraud detection algorithms?
• How many discovery exercises for a specific business
function are follow-up or repeat activities, instead of
one-off exercises?

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Establish
Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value 2
Decision Improvement Is One Opportunity for D&A to Generate Value

 usiness Partner Enablement

B  usiness Process Improvement
B Apply Different Lenses to See Different
Understand and articulate how advanced Connect specific opportunities to strategy and Opportunities for Value Creation
analytics can help solve business problems. value by adopting an enterprisewide view of
Encourage business partners to proactively business processes.
reach out with opportunities for value creation
 ata Consumption
D
by teaching them what exactly advanced
Identify opportunities to innovative new
analytics can do for them.
potential data products and services and
 eople, Process and Technology
P extract value from enterprise data by analyzing
Design information-driven business strategies data consumption.
across people, process and technology to
 ustomer Journey Map
C
provide senior leadership with a clear and
Identify improvement opportunities by looking
compelling case for investing in information to
across silos and seeing the whole picture for
enable the highest-priority business capabilities.
improvement opportunities. Journey mapping is
a popular method for ensuring a seamless end-
 usiness Decision Improvement
B to-end customer experience, and D&A leaders
Move business architecture into “decision can adapt it to identify data-related issues with
architecture,” and help organizations understand that experience.
and implement changes. Find opportunities
to use data to reengineer decisions to improve
outcomes. Source: Gartner

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Engage
Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value 3
Invest in the D&A Strategy and Operating Model

Having worked with business stakeholders to identify, prioritize and select the D&A
value proposition, you need to collectively align the required D&A investments — Data and Analytics Strategy and Operating Model
including data, analytics and technology, organizational, infrastructure and go-to-
market capabilities.
Using a framework like the Gartner Risk, Opportunity, Appetite, Return (ROAR)
Stakeholder D&A
Model helps you to assess critical success contributors and inhibitors (risks), and
Outcomes Ecosystem
identify the capability gaps your strategy, operating model and roadmap must
fill to realize the expected value. Data-Driven Capabilities Delivery
Vision and Deficits Model
Use insight from the ROAR Model Assessment to refine your data and analytics
strategy and operating model with specific priorities and dependencies to address Value
Architectures
the identified gaps. This will increase the likelihood of successfully delivering Propositions
the intended business value, for example of initiatives designed to reengineer
business decisions.
The aim is to optimize the combination of D&A initiatives to ensure the portfolio
delivers the highest net business value per dollar spent for your strategic business
focus and for a given investment level.
ROAR: Risk, Opportunity, Appetite, Return

Gartner resources: The Gartner Risk, Opportunity, Appetite, Return Model

The Gartner ROAR Model provides a systematic approach that enables executive Outcomes: Payoffs: Decisions:
leaders to align data and analytics investments with business priorities, assess their Build Value Assess Net Build D&A
Propositions Business Value Portfolios
business value and risk, and guide investment decisions.
Source: Gartner

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Tips for Delivery
4
Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value

Exploit Value Stream Management to Enhance D&A’s Value Delivery

Many D&A organizational models are structured for function optimization

but lack the cross-functional alignment and collaboration needed for true D&A Data and Analytics Strategy and Operating Model
value creation.
A value-stream-mapping process enables organizations to visualize value streams Business Business Business
Value Stream
Function A Function B Function C
(from the business to D&A and technology), understand the contributions to the Customers
flow of value and identify what requires improvement.
The optimization of these value streams requires alignment and collaboration
between business functions toward the common purpose of delivering value Decision Making

to customers.
For D&A leaders, the focus is: a) the business decision-making processes,
and b) the underlying D&A ecosystem enabling decisions.
Data and Analytics
As part of their D&A strategy and operating model, they can help optimize Ecosystem
these two areas to improve the flow of value to customers and establish a clear
connection between D&A and business value creation.
Alignment and Collaboration

Source: Gartner

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 Guides for Effective Business Decision Making — Prioritizing Data and Analytics Around Value

Actionable, objective insight

Explore these additional complimentary resources and tools This guide is part of the Effective Decision
Making Series. You can access other guides
to make better business decisions.
in this series to continue improving how your
business makes decisions and learn:
Roadmap Resource Hub
Enhance Your Roadmap for Data and Chief Data Officer to Build Data & Analytics • Which decisions to reengineer and why
Analytics Governance Leadership Traits • When to augment decisions with AI
Set the right governance foundation. Create competitive advantage through D&A.
• What role data fabric will play in your data
Webinar Roadmap
management
Data & Analytics Series: Modernize Your Data The IT Roadmap for Data and Analytics • Incorporating the right skills and capabilities
Strategy to Achieve Digital Success Follow D&A best practices to create a strategy. in your D&A organization
Connect the strategy to your operating model.

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