Lack of capacity is the biggest obstacle to compliance with the Data Act
More than one in five organizations (22%) cite a lack of capacity as the biggest obstacle to taking steps toward compliance with the Data Act. This is according to a survey conducted by IT service provider and data exchange specialist SureSync among 433 decision-makers at organizations with 250 or more full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. Although the legislation has been in effect for a year now, 19 percent indicate that compliance with the Data Act still does not have sufficient priority within their organization. A lack of knowledge also plays a role: 15 percent cite this as the biggest obstacle.
Wait-and-see strategy
It is now widely recognized that organizations must take action to comply with the legislation. For example, two-thirds (66%) indicate that their organization risks falling behind on European data legislation if steps are not taken now. Yet organizations do not seem to be pulling out all the stops to address this issue immediately. This is evident from the fact that more than half (52%) indicate that waiting for greater clarity within their own organization is used as an excuse for not taking action.
Dependence on Outdated Systems
It is not only the attitude of the organizations themselves but also their technology that influences compliance with the legislation. The Data Act requires organizations to be able to share and make data accessible in ways that many legacy systems do not support. Organizations are well aware of this: more than three-quarters (78%) state that the Data Act highlights just how dependent they are on their legacy systems. In practice, however, this does not appear to be a major obstacle: only 13 percent view these systems as the biggest obstacle to compliance with the Data Act. The dependency is thus widely recognized, but not seen as the biggest bottleneck.
Federated data sharing widely embraced, but not yet fully understood
In response to this dependence, organizations view federated data management as a potential solution, whereby data remains at the source and is shared selectively rather than copied to a central location. Seven out of ten decision-makers cite this as crucial for future data strategy. At the same time, this form of data management is not yet clear to all organizations: for example, 27 percent indicate they do not know what federated data management entails, and only 11 percent operate at a mature federated level. Nearly a quarter (24%) are taking steps toward federated data management, but they say this is still in its infancy.
Sander Odijk, managing director at SureSync: “The fact that organizations themselves admit that waiting for clarity is an excuse speaks volumes. The Data Act competes internally with other issues that feel more urgent because they have a deadline or a client behind them, and often there simply isn’t the capacity to launch a new initiative on top of that. The problem is that the bill comes later—and is even bigger: outdated systems and missing agreements don’t resolve themselves, and delaying them only makes them more complex and expensive to rectify later. The solution doesn’t have to be a big one. By aligning the Data Act with existing processes, rather than making it a separate initiative, the step becomes smaller and easier to take.”
