The EM360 team was at Tech Show London 2023 to interview business leaders and industry experts about everything Enterprise technology – from AI to cybersecurity to data.  

Yesterday we spoke to Richard Park, Chief Revenue Officer at RightData, about the importance of data analytics within the enterprise and some of the common challenges data practitioners are facing in today’s market. 

“Data is the only way to win”

When asked about why data analytics are more important than ever before in today’s enterprise landscape, Mr Park told us that data is critical to every business's decisions and market strategies. 

“Companies in every sector are realising if you're gonna get any kind of advantage or even if you're going to survive in the marketplace given the economic climate, you have to have data behind it.

There's not been a single product that’s been released, a strategy that’s helped companies succeed, or disruption that’s happened in any sector industry that has not had data as a primary lever in order to gain that advantage,” Mr Park explained. 

"This show is packed because people are trying to figure out how to do that – how to gain that advantage, how to survive, how to win in the marketplace, and how to out-innovate competitors. And it’s data – data is doing that. Data is the way to win, it’s the only way to win."

Data illiteracy is a huge barrier to data-driven success 

When asked about some of the current challenges companies are facing when it comes to data management, Mr Park explained that some firms are failing to understand their data strategies due to data illiteracy. 

“The biggest problem is that there aren't enough people in their own companies who are literate around data to understand right everything from the inception of the strategy through to what they own in their particular department, their particular division,” Mr Park explained. 

“The truth is any data strategy that happens within an enterprise. Or that goes outward. To customers or partners in the market has to be understood. It has to be grasped.

So you've got to get people on board in your own company. As a data practitioner, that causes sometimes for you to slow down to speed up as they say.”