Asia Pacific firms are slowly improving their data science capabilities because they believe it will give them a competitive advantage. But is this true? If so, what are high-performing firms doing differently to create differentiation? And how can firms that are behind catch up?
In April 2016, Booz Allen Hamilton commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate data analytics maturity and data science practices in the Asia Pacific region. In conducting five interviews and in-depth surveys with 222 business and IT decision-makers responsible for data analytics strategy in Singapore, China, Australia, and South Korea, Forrester found that very mature firms and even firms that are maturing in their data analytics strategy are outperforming those that are not. The highest-performing firms harness the power of data analytics by investing in mature data science practices that not only find insights in data but also connect insight to action in closed-loop systems. We conclude that less mature firms can grow their data science practices by emulating their more mature counterparts. In fact, they must do so in order to avoid falling further behind.