Joe Horgan

What is the purpose of a company’s data strategy?

What is the purpose of a company’s data strategy? Data: it’s the best of times and the worst of times. Over the last two decades, there’s been a huge surge in interest, innovation, and investment in big data. It’s hard to find a company that doesn’t want to be more data-driven or a CEO who…

A data strategy is not a ‘strategy for data’ 

Most data strategies fail to make it from reading material to change accelerant. This means that they don’t create tangible outcomes. Worse, they fail to address gaps in understanding and expectation. Simply, they don’t achieve relevance. When this happens, data and analytics remain an isolated technical domain focused on core activities’ ‘numerical exhaust.’  Why does…

How to create a Data Strategy: Part 3 – Plan

So far in this series on data strategy creation, we’ve discussed the importance of data strategy discovery activities to establish a current state assessment and how to define the data capabilities required for your ideal future state. In this article, we’re going deeper into what’s required to build the roadmap for your data strategy.  We’re…

Beware the tech sweetie jar!

If you like shiny new gadgets, an Energy and Utilities trade show is usually a sweet shop designed with you in mind. But just because it’s tempting doesn’t mean it’s good for you. I hear so many tales of woe when I go to these shows. Things like control engineers having to look across ten…

Digital transformation in utilities: An uphill battle?

This won’t surprise you, but digital transformation is really hard. It’s even harder when you’re working in a heavily regulated industry with legacy systems, messy data, and impatient stakeholders. We can all wax lyrical about how things should be (predictive maintenance, anyone?) but getting there is a tricky journey for a large energy or utility…

How to Create a Data Strategy: Part 2 – Define

Previously in our series on creating a data strategy, we discussed the importance of discovery and establishing a current state assessment. This week, we’re exploring the next step in the data strategy journey – how to define the ideal future state for navigating your data strategy and determining the data capabilities required to get you…

How to create a Data Strategy: Part 1 – Discovery

“How do we create a data strategy?” Many organisations face this question as they seek to modernise and drive greater value from their data. It’s a complex question to address because a data strategy needs to be custom-shaped to your organisation’s specific goals, culture, technology and value proposition. Your organisation is unique, so you can’t…