Data analytics director for EMEA at Dell EMC, Paul Brook, offered an insight into a digital future fuelled by data and valuable returns for businesses at this year’s Industrial Data Summit. Up to 90% of the data that exists today was created in the past two years, creating a world where data has become a company’s most valuable asset.

“And yet, the value of data has historically depreciated over time. Manually saved to tapes and disks, this ‘corporate memory’ was recorded and then filed away, often sitting untouched for decades,” explained Brook.

However, it is all changing now thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics. These technologies combined with support from expert technology partners are helping manufacturers shift away from the status quo and embrace change; a change that will bring rich opportunities for productivity improvements, market differentiation, heightened customer service and business growth.

According to Brooke, three pillars need to be considered by executive teams when setting about creating their business’ response to the digital future: IT transformation, workforce transformation and security transformation.

IT transformation means modernising and updating the infrastructure, automating the IT service delivery and transforming not just processes, but people. Increasingly, it will see greater numbers of manufacturers embrace and adopt cloud computing – a trend which has already gained significant momentum of late, and shows no signs of slowing. It will also see data being placed at the heart of a business’ growth strategy, requiring champions to address how the organisation manages, stores, protects and analyses its most precious asset – information.

In order to be connected to anyone, anywhere and at any time, businesses must identify and implement how a highly mobile, interconnected workforce will transform their operations.