Seeing the data for the trees: Assessing the data maturity and readiness of a UK forestry company

Abstract

A large UK forestry company has been used as the case study to assess the organisational aspects that hinder forestry organisations from reaching data maturity and becoming data driven. This study focuses on the organisational aspects of dealing with data, as they are often disregarded in favour of dealing only with the technical aspects. The barriers to reaching data maturity have been assessed by means of an online survey distributed across the company. Additionally, the study explores how willing the company is to make changes towards becoming more data driven, assess the data capabilities of the company, identify which benefits of harnessing data are viewed more positively and to estimate the data maturity level of the organisation. The results showed that the company case study was in the early‐mid stages of data maturity with significant opportunity for improvement. The main barriers identified were cultural, along with some other organisational barriers related to data roles and data strategy. Improving the data maturity of the organisation case study consisted of increasing data‐skills, prioritising data‐driven decision making at management level and finally elaborating an organisation‐wide data strategy.