93% of Indian companies don't use data properly, says AWS study 

Despite strides made in digital transformation in India, a whopping 93 percent of organisations in the country are still in the beginner stages of data maturity, says a study.

According to the Demystifying Data 2022 report by Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Indian organizations that effectively utilise data they produce, could potentially grow annual business revenue by 13.6 percent. The saving is equivalent to Rs 745.1 crore in additional revenue for large enterprises, it added.

"As organisations invest more in digital transformation, there is an opportunity for greater use of data to improve productivity, generate financial returns and create a positive impact on the economy," said Monojit Mazumdar, Partner, Deloitte, "Yet, only six percent of Indian organisations have invested in the necessary technology, talent, and processes needed to unlock the full potential of their data."

The survey covered 521 businesses with the key parameter being data maturity — how effectively an organisation uses the data it produces.

On the basis of its findings and effectiveness in data strategy displayed by the companies surveyed, the study categorized organisations on a scale of Beginner to Advanced.

"Organisations can benefit from building internal data analytics skills, which may involve upskilling current staff through on-the-job training and training courses or partnering with organisations," said Puneet Chandok, President of Commercial Business, AWS India and South Asia.

Incidentally, AWS is in the midst of expanding its AWS Data Lab offering in India with the stated objective of helping its customers increase their data maturity. "This will transform how these companies solve problems and build customer and experiences," Chandok added.

What will make AWS’ objective easier is that a large number of respondents to the Deloitte survey (63 percent) said they believed that effective capture and analysis of data can lead to improved productivity, while 60 percent of the 521 companies surveyed said it could also lead to increased sales and revenues.

Ever since the slowdown in the tech and start-up ecosystem from early 2022 onwards, a number of early-stage and growth-stage start-ups have thrown their weight behind cloud adoption and the importance of harnessing data to lower costs.

Start-ups like Atlan have reported on how their growth has coincided with a conscious and successful attempt at lowering costs by 50 to 70 percent through cloud adoption on the AWS platform.

In an exclusive chat with CNBC-TV18.com along the sidelines of AWS’ Re:Invent in Las Vegas, Kumara Raghavan, Head of Start-ups at AWS India said cost optimization was a "constant journey" at AWS. "We are using a lot of levers to make that (cost optimisation) happen," he said.

Raghavan cited the example of SAAS-based customer engagement start-up CleverTap. "The start-up saw a huge increase in usage when companies were on the digital transformation journey during the COVID pandemic," he said, "The company used our Graviton processors to lower costs by as much as 20 percent."

According to the findings of the Demystifying Data report, organizations in retail trade ranked the highest on the data maturity scale, with 78 percent of the organizations surveyed scoring a top ranking of 'Advanced'. This was followed by organizations in information, media and telecommunications (68 percent), who in turn were followed by companies in finance and insurance (67 percent).

Interestingly, organisations in education and training have the lowest levels of data maturity, the report claims, with less than 30 percent of surveyed organizations in this sector scoring the top rank.

The report claims that most companies surveyed said that the main barrier to using data and analytics was data quality, data security, risk and the lack of data and analytics strategy.