Is your business drowning in data, yet starved for actionable insights? Or worse, are your legacy systems holding your data hostage? Unquestionably, I’ve seen this scenario play out countless times, and frankly, it’s less a “predicament” and more a self-inflicted wound stemming from a lack of a truly data-centric approach to doing business. For too long, we’ve treated data as a mere byproduct of our business software, not a strategic asset. The result? Data silos, duplication, and inaccuracies that complicate corporate strategies, not a durable asset brimming with corporate insights.

Without a doubt, there’s a better way. A data-centric approach isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the strategic pivot your organization needs to achieve genuine agility, establish “one truth,” simplify operations, and ignite true technological innovation. In this article, I’ll look at what data-centricity is and what it’s absolutely not. Also, I’ll explain why an organization cannot be both application-centric and data-centric simultaneously. Lastly, I’ll identify data-centricity’s top six benefits that will fundamentally transform your business. Without a doubt, it’s time to stop merely managing data and start mastering it. Are you ready to fundamentally rethink your entire data strategy?

“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.”

Tim Berners-Lee

1. Data Centricity: What It Is, and Why Businesses (and Their Software) Need This New Approach.

Data Centricity is a new way for businesses and their software to treat data. Currently, business data is secondary to software. Indeed, it is time for businesses to start prioritizing data over their software in order to make their data a permanent, strategic asset. With a data-centric approach, businesses will maximize insights from their data, and stop treating data as a by-product. Below, I’ll describe what Data Centricity is and why businesses need to re-think how they use their business software to start using their data as a strategic asset.

a. What Does It Mean to be Data Centric?

First, let’s get a better understanding of data-centric with a definition:

“Data centric refers to an architecture where data is the primary and permanent asset, and applications come and go.  In the data centric architecture, the data model precedes the implementation of any given application and will be around and valid long after it is gone.”

TDAN, The Data-Centric Revolution: Data-Centric vs. Data-Driven

I like this definition because it defines data as a key permanent asset for businesses. Specifically, this definition tells us that technology, software applications, and automation will come and go, but our data will never grow obsolete. Indeed, data is a permanent business asset that businesses do not need to constrain within any particular technology or software application.

b. Examples of Business Software and Its Relationship With Data.

Also, to get a better understanding of the term, data-centric, we need to know the relationship between data and business software. To illustrate, most supply chain managers are no strangers to data-rich software such as:

• Enterprise Software. Here, software like ERP, TMS, and WMS both import and generate data. In most cases, the data is a by-product of the software processes.
• Office Productivity Software. For example, MS Excel. This software both uses data and creates data via data entry. In most cases, this software keeps data isolated and it manipulates data only for a single, expedited outcome.
• Business Intelligence (BI) Dashboards. In this case, business professionals will use these analytics tools to summarize data in order to assist with decision-making. In many cases, the data for these report tools are stored in a data warehouse where the data was copied from other systems. Also, these report tools can directly access source data such as from an enterprise system.

The relationship between data and business software is undeniably intertwined. Within enterprise systems, data is frequently generated as a mere byproduct, serving primarily for transactional processing and as a system of record. Similarly, office software creates or modifies existing source data where it is often transitory, incomplete, and duplicated. Even Business Intelligence (BI) reports, while valuable, many times rely on static copies of historical data, offering only summarized snapshots. Consequently, business software routinely treats data as an incidental output rather than as a permanent, strategic asset for achieving corporate-wide goals. The result – limited business insights and data overload.

“We are surrounded by data, but starved for insights.”

Jay Baer

2. What Data Centric Is Not.

You Need To Think Data Centric To Be A Successful Business: Stop Being Data Driven, Application Centric

To better understand what data-centric is we need to understand what it is not. In fact, this is critical because for an organization to start being data-centric, it will need to break some of its existing habits. See below, for a comparison of data-centric, data-driven, and application-centric.

• Data-Driven Approach. This mindset creates data overload and data silos. Nowadays, it is a given that all modern businesses using data and are “data-driven”, transitioning away from paper-based processes.
• Application-Centric. In this case, data is treated as an output at best, and worst as a by-product.
• Data-Centric. This mindset treats data as a business asset, not a by-product.
• Bottom Line: You can’t be both application centric and data centric.

For more details on the difference between “data-centric”, “data driven” and  “application centric”, see my article, You Need To Think Data Centric To Be A Successful Business: Stop Being Data Driven, Application Centric.

“You can’t be both application-centric and data-centric.”

3. The Six Benefits Of A Data-Centric Business.

Now, it is hard to change to a data-centric mindset overnight, especially for an organization that previously had an application-centric approach to leveraging information technology. At the same time, if an organization does transition to a data-centric approach for doing business, they can immediately start to reap the benefits. These data-centric benefits include:

Data-Centric Benefits: Businesses Becoming More Innovative By Not Being Mired In Application Centricity

• Superior Business Agility: Not chained to data silos or legacy applications
• High Confidence In Data: There Is a single source of truth (SSOT) vs multiple versions or copies
• Improved Decision-Making: Having high-quality data that is complete, accurate, timely
• Simplified Software: Lower costs, increase reuse of code
• Faster Adoption of New Technologies: Such as AI, IoT, and other data-centric information technologies
• Streamlined Data Security, Integration, And Analytics

Indeed, a shift to a data-centric way of thinking will differentiate those businesses that will thrive and those that will be left behind. In my article, Data-Centric Benefits: Businesses Becoming More Innovative By Not Being Mired In Application Centricity, I’ll look at six advantages of businesses adopting a data-centric mindset. This is a business way of thinking that maximizes data insights and enables rapid tech adoption for a competitive advantage.

“Data really powers everything that we do.”

Jeff Weiner

More References.

Also, for more details and perspectives on businesses taking a data centric approach, see Kevin Doubleday blog posting Introduction to Data-Centricity. Lastly, to get started on your data transformation journey, see my article, A Data-Centric Business Strategy Checklist: The Way To Energize A Digital Enterprise To Be More Agile, Bold, And Simplified.

A Data-Centric Business Strategy Checklist: The Way To Energize A Digital Enterprise To Be More Agile, Bold, And Simplified

Also, if you are in the supply chain industry and need help to implement a data-centric strategy, please contact me to discuss next steps. I have implemented 100s of tech pilot projects and innovative solutions across the supply chain as well as all transportation modes. I specialize in proof-of-concepts (POC) for emerging technologies and data-centric software development methods. To reach me, click here to access my contact form or you can find me on LinkedIn.

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