In Data Analytics We Trust?

One of the recurring themes in this community is how data and analytics hold great potential to uncover insight to give us direction. For businesses to adopt the means of achieving more data-driven decisions would seem to be an obvious choice. So why don’t they all do it? Some just don’t trust the results. That’s the finding of KPMG’s report Building trust in analytics: Breaking the cycle of mistrust in D & A.

To discover the extent of trust in data and analytics, KPMG International commissioned Forrester Consulting to assess it based on responses to a survey that included over 2,000 organizations around the globe. The report took into account the state of four key anchors of trust: quality, effectiveness, integrity, and resilience.

With regard to the four anchors of trust, numbers tended to be on the low side. For resilience, 20 percent of respondents expressed confidence in data and analytics security, and 18 percent in governance. There was more divergence for rankings on integrity. Just 13 percent expressed faith in their organization’s privacy and ethical use of data and analytics, but 44 percent were confident about regulatory compliance.

The numbers were lower for trust in quality. A mere 10 percent of organizations expressed faith in the quality of their organization’s data, tools, and methodologies, and 22 percent expressed confidence in the of capabilities of D & A, Only 16 percent expressed confidence in the accuracy of their analytics models, and 20 percent said they trusted the utility of models and processes.

The majority -- 60 percent -- indicated they are not very confident in the D & A insight of their organization. The report attributes that lack of confidence to a lack of understanding. Decision makers who don’t understand what goes into D & A are apt “to miss the full value of their investments and assume that a large proportion of their D & A projects don’t work.” Consequently, it is essential for organizations to set up ways “to assess and validate the effectiveness of their analytics in supporting decision-making” to foster understanding and appreciation for what they gain from D & A.

But the report is not only concerned with the decision makers’ trust. Because data analytics are expected to become central to more processes in future, it is necessary to gain trust from all who are touched by it. Accordingly, Sander Klous, a partner with KPMG in the Netherlands, is quoted as saying, “We need to find ways to establish societal trust in how organizations operate in the emerging data-driven society."

He added that it is necessary to win over trust to data and analytics, though it won’t be easy. He references a saying of his native country, “Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback." So there is no easy fix, but the report does hold out hope, offering seven key recommendations for enhancing trust in D & A.

They are:

The last point relates to the interview with Dr. Mark Kennedy of Imperial College, London, which was cited in the report. He offers this insight: