The telecommunications sector faces increasing competition and must explore new business models, and this data presents a key opportunity for the sector. In this scenario, the degree of innovation of Telcos compared to other sectors stands out, explained by the significant investments operators have made in developing their platforms.

The digital maturity of the business has driven telecommunications operators to base their strategies on data and analytics: all recognize the importance of data in their strategies. This vision is reflected in specific programs in 80% of companies, all of them with a high level of detail. However, while operators base their strategic decisions on data, only 20% apply analytical models in their decision-making.

Spanish telecommunications operators also differ from companies in other sectors in terms of attracting digital talent. While other companies are engaged in a battle for talent, this does not appear to pose a significant obstacle for operators, as all the companies analyzed claim to have specialized professionals to handle projects related to data exploitation. However, 20% of companies acknowledge that a data-driven culture is not yet fully integrated within their organizations.

All the operators interviewed by Minsait agree that there is complete alignment and commitment from senior management to the evolution towards a Data-Driven Organization (DDO), stemming from their shared and clear strategic vision. As a result, all have roles that assume leadership in data evolution. However, it is noteworthy that only two-thirds have Chief Data Officers (CDOs), while in the remaining three, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) fulfills this function. Overall, the operators participating in the report are satisfied with the level of resources available for data and analytics projects, and 20% consider data a top budget priority.

For Telcos, data security and protection are of paramount importance, given the vast volumes of data they handle daily. This is why all operators have policies in place to ensure compliance with national and international regulations and conduct regular audits to guarantee adherence. They also ensure the anonymity of their customers' information and have mechanisms to protect data against unauthorized access; however, 60% fail to leverage the full potential of data to safeguard their business stability and lack advanced analytical models to detect potential threats.

Undoubtedly, the use of customer-related data is the biggest challenge for mobile operators. Despite the vast amount of data they handle, almost half of the operators lack insight into customer experience with their products. Furthermore, only 20% are able to redesign and enhance the experience based on service consumption data. However, customer understanding is rapidly evolving, with 40% of companies stating they are considering partnerships with third parties to enrich their customer insights, and the remaining 60% already collecting external data from partners.

There is also room for improvement in competitive intelligence. Although 80% of companies perform continuous, automated monitoring, they are still not implementing sophisticated intelligence. Meanwhile, reputation management, so crucial to the customer-brand relationship, is still handled traditionally in more than half of the companies.

General Conclusions:
Spanish companies are far from having a Data-Driven Organization (DDO) model. Only 46% of Spanish companies give data the importance it deserves in their strategies and have defined programs to evolve towards this type of organization. Few companies are paying attention to their capabilities to manage the data lifecycle: only 19% have an approach based on applying analytics beyond operational excellence.

Further data from the Minsait Report on Digital Maturity in Spain 2019:
- Regarding strategy, the study indicates that a data-centric approach needs to be more firmly established, integrating data analytics into the company's strategy: only 56% of companies have one. - Regarding organization, it points out that while management supports the maturation of data and analytics applications in 65% of companies, only 23% of Spanish companies acknowledge having a robust data governance structure that ensures acceptable data quality, and only 17% have implemented policies for the control, maintenance, and continuous improvement of algorithms.
- Concerning culture and talent, only 17% of companies acknowledge having enough data and analytics specialists. Similarly, only 28% recognize a data quality culture within their company, and new ways of working with data (new methodologies, democratization, dissemination) are only implemented in a quarter of companies.
- Regarding technology, only 30% of organizations have implemented Big Data technologies, and 11% work with tools to optimize data governance (dictionaries, MDM, modeling, quality, etc.).

The Minsait Report also analyzed how advances in analytics are deployed and translated across the value chain in four dimensions:
- Regarding innovation, 10% of companies have a data-driven trend observatory and 8% have an automated market observatory to detect innovation opportunities.
- Regarding customers, only 26% incorporate external data to improve aggregated customer knowledge and only 19% continuously monitor the customer experience for redesign.
- Regarding operations, 27% of companies leverage analytics opportunities, but only 6% apply intelligent optimization to their IT function and 11% to their finance function.
- Regarding security, almost 80% comply with strict policies and mechanisms that guarantee secure access to user data. However, analytical techniques for fraud prevention are only used in 40% of companies and for identifying future risks in only 17%.

Rewards derived from applying a Data-Driven Organization model

Minsait summarizes the benefits of investing, with conviction, in becoming a company that gives data the importance it deserves:
- They extract value from data and make their investments profitable: in the short term through direct commercial or operational optimization, or in the long term through customer understanding. This ensures their viability in the face of new players with data-driven business models.
- They build capital based on intangible assets: data. This generates a long-term competitive advantage with a customer-centric approach that fosters a value proposition based on experiences.
- They increase their speed in decision-making, being the first to react to a changing environment, thus better adapting to customer needs.
- They generate synergies around data through universal access and company-wide training. This reduces the time needed to develop new projects, provides a global perspective to many previously departmental initiatives, and creates collaborative environments that foster innovation.

Minsait's teams have the knowledge, methods, and experts in advanced technologies to help Spanish companies transform into Data-Driven Organizations and enable them to realize the potential of data in positive impacts, offering personalized advice to face the competitive challenges posed by a constantly changing environment.