Why are enterprises still clueless about unstructured data?

Technology is now changing much faster than an organization’s ability to adapt to it. For example, digital technology is creating anomalies in data that we have yet to fully learn how to identify and use. This is evidenced in our latest study in which a whopping 45% – almost half – of enterprise leaders believe that only a small percentage (0-25%) of their data is unstructured. By unstructured, we are referring to digital pictures, videos, social media feeds, web content, handwriting and sketches, and voice memos, for example, which are common data elements in any organization. As studies suggest that 90% of the global data being produced today is in these undefined, uncatalogued formats it is virtually impossible to imagine that unstructured data is not relevant to half the organizations today as indicated by our study results. (see Exhibit 1) We believe companies need to be conscious of looking for unstructured data as they design their integrated OneOffice operations for the future.[1]

Exhibit 1: 45% of Enterprise Leaders Believe Only a Small Percent of Data is Unstructured

What is the estimated proportion of structured vs unstructured data in your organization? 

Source: HfS Research, The State of Automation, n = 400 Enterprise Buyers

Why does it matter? The Triple A Trifecta Is Underpinned By Data

Wired writes about how we live in a time of digital Darwinism, “an era where technology and society are evolving faster than businesses can naturally adapt. This sets the stage for a new era of leadership, a new generation of business models, charging behind a mantra of ‘adapt or die’.” This phenomenon of technology vs. people changes couldn’t be truer than when it comes to the effectiveness of automation, analytics and AI – the combination we refer to as the Triple A Trifecta (see Exhibit 2).

Exhibit 2: Triple A Trifecta 

Source: HfS Research, 2017 

Our research shows that among these three sets of technologies, enterprises believe AI will drive the next wave of digital disruption. The majority of enterprise leaders (60-70%) are either already piloting or implementing AI technology in some form, or plan to do so in the next two years. That means that companies must prepare and plan for AI now, if they are to meet the two-year horizon or risk getting left behind while others create new types of competitive advantages. But even as we get excited about the potential impact of automation and AI, there is clearly still a disconnect with what it will take to use these technologies effectively – data.

True value will ultimately lie in interpreting and feeding off data patterns from a multitude of sources and types, and most notably, from unstructured data. When our study asked what it would take to make robotic process automation more relevant to their organization, one respondent rightly pointed out their challenge, “It needs to shift and use unstructured data to digital and structured formats so we can access it faster when we need it.” One of the most critical elements of the Triple A Trifecta is the unstructured data — what it is, where it is, and/or how to best capture and use it. A surprising number of executives underestimate how much unstructured data their business generates or uses, which can ultimately impact the benefits.

Intelligent data orchestration is the futuristic view of using data and automation to create links for straight-through processes

As we move towards more digitized and automated processes and workflows, organizations will be able to create faster, more intelligent business functions. Overcoming our manual, disjointed processes will require us to deal with unstructured data, and make it usable for our automation engines. When you start down the path of say, implementing a robotics tool, you realize, for example, how many handwritten scribbles your OCR tool can’t pick up, or non-standard forms, PDFs and images your processes involve today. You have to be able to recognize and use this unstructured data or risk your organization still having disjointed workflows and gaps going into the digital age. When these pieces are connected and data is intelligently routed, organizations will be able to create more straight-through processes. With this orchestration, data will become the true lifeblood – and currency – for organizations in the future. Organizations need to create their data strategy down to the process layer across functions, investigating the role of unstructured data, the extent to which it can be interpreted where it is most meaningful, or invest in ways to harness it down the road.

For example: Does your insurance carrier’s competitor need to know about your bad Yelp review regarding the auto repair shop that you were sent to so this other carrier could potentially win you over with their superior repair network? Maybe, but they will need to see how easy it is to gather those insights and test if using them actually affects customer acquisition…and even before that, they need to understand that relevant and potentially meaningful data does exist out there that could help them. Enterprises need to create more awareness of the potential impact of unstructured data on different parts of their organizations, and evaluate their automation, AI and smart analytics needs and investments on the back of their data strategy.

Bottom line

While technology is outpacing our ability to adopt it, the Triple A trifecta model can help business operations understand and shape RPA, analytics, and artificial intelligence into forward thinking solutions for customers. At the heart of this, however, is the need to develop a holistic understanding of relevant and meaningful structured and unstructured data in businesses.

[1] This data point is from our latest research study, The State of Automation & AI: The C-Suite’s Number One Strategic Priority For Operations, which surveyed 400 senior executives from enterprise IT and operations about automation and AI.