Today’s C-suite is struggling to keep up with technology trends, and many chief information officers are looking to create information technology teams that will create value for the organization. As indicated by International Data Corp. research, technology is going to be at the core of every company’s agenda, and executives and company constituents will have to become digitally focused in their operations.

Enter Deloitte Consulting LLP, a technology consulting firm that many organizations turn to help develop the right roadmap for not only their digital transformation, but also to achieve their business transformation.  

As one of the many technology integrators, what does Deloitte do to help its clients get to the place where technology begins to deliver positive outcomes for the business?

“We’re seeing the view of ecosystems being so much more important. We have so many technology disruptors. I think demystifying, simplifying, helping customers understand the art of the possible, what can be done, what are leading practice organizations are doing, and then really making it real,” said Tracy Ring (pictured), global alliance leader, analytics technologies, at Deloitte Consulting.

Speaking with John Furrier (@furrier) and Peter Burris (@plburris), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, at Informatica World in San Francisco, Ring outlined technology tools and how they impact the enterprise. (* Disclosure below.)

This week, theCUBE spotlights Tracy Ring in our Women in Tech feature.

The data-driven transformation builds steam with cognitive

Data-driven businesses are on the rise, as the expression “transform or die” is becoming a reality. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times as likely to retain those customers and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result.

It is important for businesses to change the ethos of the way they operate and take advantage of the advances in technology by using data and metadata to deliver new business outcomes and create momentum in monetizing data.

The table stakes have changed, and looking at what creates success has been turned on its head, according to Ring.

“It’s really about revolutionizing and going into a new angle of what is truly, truly possible. And we’re looking at organizations monetizing their data and creating new business ventures because of the insights that they’re deriving,” she said.

As companies move to building actionable systems that will take some of the guess work out of business processes, technology consultants need to retool for the future. Metadata and machine learning are at the core of the innovative systems, and at Informatica World, the theme permeating all announcements was about how the company plans to accelerate the data-driven digital transformation.

During the show, Informatica introduced the CLAIRE engine, the unique intelligence behind the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform. This new tool will inch enterprise customers closer to cognitive technologies. But widespread adoption is still not a reality, according to Ring.

“Hearing the announcement … of CLAIRE and how we now have the AI of our clairvoyance is really exciting. I don’t know that we’re completely there, and we’ll continue to innovate as Informatica always does, but we certainly are a whole lot closer,” she stated.

According to a Deloitte report, the dramatic improvement in cognitive technologies, such as computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, robotics and other areas, are causing businesses to reconsider this technology, which has been around for decades.

The opportunities for cognitive to provide business with additional capabilities are what Deloitte considers “the insight-driven advantage,” and machine learning and artificial intelligence are just more tools in the toolkit for the company to create better data-driven decisions around what organizations can accomplish — and the move is happening much quicker.

“We’re moving into robotics, process automation. The space is getting even more complex. But, I think, what’s interesting is when we talk to organizations about [how] they’re not hiring tons of people to go out and do data integration [because of] wonderful organizations like Informatica, that’s really been solved,” she said.

Deloitte also reports that over the next five years, the impact of cognitive technologies on organizations will grow substantially. Leadership in organizations of all sectors are going to need to know how and where to invest in this technology.

Leading the way

As a consultant, Ring said that the process begins with the company’s goal. Considering the marketplace, the brand and how to differentiate among the competition, once the direction is set their next phase involves developing a solid process and a rigorous approach to that strategy.  

“I think the interesting part is … that it’s not about just cost out of IT, it’s not about getting off on-premise hardware; it’s about driving better customer satisfaction. Driving better business outcomes [where] the implications are. How you can touch your customer in a way that is … delighting them versus just giving them what they asked for,” Ring said.

Ring is excited with all the technology available to help businesses sew together the fabric of what organizations need to really achieve their analytic insights and leveraging data. There is more to it, however, she said. Producing outcomes is the key to realizing a digital transformation.

“It’s not just about bolting in a technology — or 10 technologies. It’s about solving the most difficult technology problems, with data helping. if you don’t take the business aspect of it, what business problem are we solving? What are we generating? How are ultimately impacting our customer’s customers? Then, you’re sort of missing, what we consider, the most important piece of the pie,” she concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Informatica World 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Informatica World. Neither Informatica Corp. nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE