The Big Disconnect: Where Data Investments Are Surging—But Performance Isn’t

How Hexaware closed the gap for two of our clients

Data & Analytics

Last Updated: August 5, 2025

It’s time to rethink your data ROI…

Enterprise data budgets are rising fast. According to ISG’s 2025 Data and AI Programs Market Lens™ Study, organizations plan to increase their data investments by 7.5% over the next two years. But despite that commitment, outcomes often fall short. The study reveals a troubling disconnect between the areas that attract the most funding and those that actually deliver measurable business value from data.

In fact, some of the most heavily funded initiatives—dashboards, AI-powered productivity gains, and data integration—rank among the lowest-performing in terms of business expectations.

Investment vs. Performance: What the Data Says

This table, drawn from ISG’s research, highlights the imbalance:

Focus Area	Top 5 in Funding	% Exceeding Expectations	% Falling Short
Dashboards & Insights Reporting	✅	35%	33%
Productivity from AI/Data Initiatives	✅	23%	46%
Data Integration & APIs	✅	32%	30%
Data Quality & Validation	✅	29%	39%
Data Security & Governance	✅	38%	27%

Key Insight: Enterprises are spending in the right categories—but not always in the right ways. Data Investment ROI in outputs (like dashboards) often comes without investment in the inputs (like governance, metadata, and integration) needed to make those outputs valuable.

Why This Disconnect Happens

The ISG study and our own client experience consistently reveal three core causes:

1. Siloed Execution

Even as CIOs drive data strategy, the roles executing that strategy—application users, architects, curators—rarely collaborate. ISG reports overlap in less than 30% of enterprises.

2. Immature Infrastructure

More than one-third of respondents lack a consistent enterprise data architecture, undermining their ability to scale analytics with confidence.

3. The Dashboard Illusion

Dashboards are treated as indicators of progress—but when fed by inconsistent or slow-moving data, they actually obscure performance instead of revealing it.

What Works: Aligning Investment With Value

Hexaware has helped clients break this pattern by realigning investments—away from just building dashboards or AI features, and toward modernizing the data backbone that supports them. Below are two recent transformation stories where we helped bridge the gap between intent and impact.

Case Study 1: From Visualizations to Value at a U.S. Credit Union

The Situation
This credit union had invested heavily in analytics, dashboards, and reporting capabilities. But legacy infrastructure, expensive licenses, and a sprawling integration landscape made it difficult to turn those investments into trusted insights.

The Disconnect
Despite investment in dashboards, the organization lacked:

A scalable integration architecture
Consistent workflows
Metadata-driven governance
These issues meant that dashboards existed, but business users didn’t trust the data behind them.

Hexaware’s Solution
We shifted the focus upstream, migrating 1,000+ integration jobs from Informatica IICS to Azure Data Factory. We implemented a metadata-driven framework integrated with Snowflake, supporting clean, governed, real-time data for critical domains including:

Core banking and loan processing
Member service business platforms
Customer and Marketing analytics
Credit scoring and fraud detection

Results:

Impact Area	Benefit
Cost Efficiency	$150K+ saved annually in licensing and overhead
Development Efficiency	5x faster buildout using reusable templates
Operational Scalability	Easy onboarding of new data sources
Data Trust	Standardized pipelines and metadata governance

This client didn’t need more dashboards—they needed better data behind them. Once the foundations were rebuilt, the insights became trustworthy, scalable, and outcome-driven.

Want to learn more? Read the full case study.

Case Study 2: Replacing Manual Risk Reporting with Real-Time Security Insight

The Situation
A global clinical research organization relied on manual, email-based processes to manage cybersecurity vulnerability data—a growing risk in a regulatory-heavy industry like healthcare.

The Disconnect
The client had invested in vulnerability reporting tools and dashboards. But:

Data was inconsistently ingested
Risk visibility was delayed
Manual workflows introduced compliance risk

Hexaware’s Solution
We didn’t just upgrade the dashboard—we modernized the pipeline. Using Microsoft Fabric’s Medallion Architecture, Power Automate, and OneLake, we built a secure, automated vulnerability reporting system with:

Role-based secure access (Azure B2C + SSO)
Multi-stage data transformation (bronze → gold)
Real-time ingestion from offline/legacy sources
Power BI dashboards with actionable data insights on trends

Results:

Impact Area	Benefit
Response Time	40% faster resolution of vulnerabilities
Efficiency	3x improvement in operational workflows
Data Accuracy	2x increase in data trust and consistency
Futureproofing	Seamless onboarding of new data sources

Instead of investing further in dashboards, the client worked with Hexaware to automate and integrate their vulnerability data pipeline—turning visualizations into action.

Want to learn more? Read the full case study.

How High-Performing Enterprises Are Realigning Data Spend

The most successful organizations aren’t necessarily spending more. They’re spending smarter—especially on the foundational capabilities that enable performance:

Shift in Mindset	Why It Works
From dashboards → toward data readiness	Trustworthy data enables confident decision-making
From siloed teams → toward “fusion teams”	Business, IT, and data leads share ownership and KPIs
From front-end spend → toward architecture spend	Strong pipelines reduce manual effort and speed time-to-value

Final Word: Don’t Just Fund Data. Fuel It with Data Modernization.

If your data program isn’t delivering, the answer may not be to invest more in visualizations or AI pilots. Instead, ask whether you’ve funded data quality improvement, orchestration, and talent collaboration needed to make those programs effective.

At Hexaware, we help enterprises with data and analytics services to close the gap between vision and value—transforming data investments into business results.

Ready to get started? Let’s talk about building your data value roadmap.

About the Author

Nidhi Alexander

Chief Marketing Officer

Nidhi Alexander is the Chief Marketing Officer at Hexaware, responsible for developing and building the brand and driving growth across its suite of technology services and platforms. She is responsible for brand, content, digital marketing, social media, corporate initiatives, industry analyst relations, media relations, market research, field marketing, and demand generation across channels.

Nidhi has been anchoring market influencer relationships globally for Hexaware before taking over the marketing function. Within two years, she completely transformed Hexaware’s position across rankings from the industry analyst community. She has also helped build a strong sales channel via advisor-led deals for Hexaware.

A recognized and accomplished marketing professional known for breakthrough results, Nidhi brings in diverse experience across brand building, analyst and advisor relations, field marketing, academic relations, employer branding, journalism, and television production over the last two and half decades.

Before Hexaware, she was in leadership positions in firms like Infosys and Mindtree. She is a recipient of the Chairman’s award at Infosys, Mindtree, and Polaris. She started her career in journalism with Star Television (News Corp) and was associated with several award-winning news and current affairs programs like Focus Asia, National Geographic Today, Star Talk, and Prime Minister’s Speak.

Nidhi holds a degree in English Literature from Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University, and a Masters in English Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi. She currently resides in Bridgewater, New Jersey, with her husband and two children.

FAQs

Organizations often struggle with achieving a strong return on investment (ROI) from their data initiatives due to several key challenges. One major issue is the inability to effectively capture and utilize the right data. While data is increasingly easy to collect, not all of it is relevant or actionable, and many organizations fail to focus on the data that truly drives business outcomes. Additionally, the costs associated with data infrastructure, analytics tools, and skilled personnel can be significant, and without a clear strategy for aligning these investments with business goals, the ROI can remain elusive. Another challenge is the lack of integration between data systems and business processes, which can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities to leverage insights for decision-making.

Moreover, cultural and organizational barriers often hinder the effective use of data. For example, siloed departments may resist sharing data, or employees may lack the skills to interpret and act on analytics. Without a data-driven culture and proper training, even the most advanced tools and technologies can fail to deliver value. Furthermore, organizations sometimes overestimate the immediate impact of data investments, underestimating the time and effort required to build robust data pipelines and analytics capabilities. These factors collectively contribute to the struggle in realizing meaningful ROI from data investments.

To bridge the gap between data investment and performance, enterprises need to adopt a strategic and holistic approach. First, they must ensure that their data initiatives are closely aligned with their overall business objectives. This involves identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) that directly tie data efforts to measurable outcomes, such as revenue growth, cost savings, or customer satisfaction. Leveraging automation and AI tools can also help streamline data processing, aggregation, and analysis, enabling real-time insights that empower employees to make informed decisions. By focusing on actionable data and integrating analytics into everyday workflows, organizations can maximize the impact of their investments.

Additionally, fostering a data-driven culture is critical. This includes breaking down silos, encouraging cross-departmental collaboration, and providing employees with the training and tools they need to effectively use data in their roles. Enterprises should also prioritize scalability and flexibility in their data infrastructure to adapt to changing business needs and technological advancements. Regularly evaluating and optimizing data systems can help ensure that investments remain aligned with organizational goals and deliver sustained value over time. By addressing both technical and cultural aspects, enterprises can close the gap between data investment and performance.

Automation is poised to revolutionize data pipelines by significantly improving their efficiency, accuracy, and scalability. Automated tools can handle repetitive tasks such as data collection, cleaning, and integration, freeing up human resources for more strategic activities. This not only reduces operational costs but also accelerates the time-to-insight, enabling organizations to respond more quickly to market changes. Furthermore, automation enhances the consistency and reliability of data pipelines, minimizing errors and ensuring that decision-makers have access to high-quality, real-time data. These improvements can lead to a healthier ROI by maximizing the value extracted from data investments.

In addition to operational benefits, automation enables organizations to scale their data initiatives more effectively. As data volumes continue to grow, manual processes become increasingly unsustainable. Automated systems can handle large-scale data processing with ease, ensuring that enterprises can keep up with the demands of a data-driven economy. Moreover, by integrating AI capabilities into automated pipelines, organizations can uncover deeper insights and predictive analytics, further enhancing their ability to drive business outcomes. Overall, automation is a key enabler for optimizing data pipelines and achieving a strong ROI.

Failing to modernize data infrastructure poses significant risks for organizations, including reduced competitiveness and missed opportunities. Legacy systems often lack the scalability and flexibility needed to handle the growing volume and complexity of data in today’s business environment. This can lead to inefficiencies, such as slower data processing and limited analytical capabilities, which hinder an organization’s ability to make timely and informed decisions. Additionally, outdated infrastructure may struggle to integrate with modern tools and technologies, creating silos and limiting the potential for innovation.

Another major risk is increased vulnerability to security breaches and compliance issues. Older systems are often less equipped to handle evolving cybersecurity threats and may not meet current regulatory standards. This can result in costly fines, reputational damage, and loss of customer trust. Furthermore, organizations that fail to modernize their data infrastructure risk falling behind competitors who are leveraging advanced analytics and AI to drive growth and efficiency. In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, staying stagnant can have long-term consequences for an organization’s success and sustainability.

Hexaware helps clients maximize the value of their data investments by offering end-to-end solutions that address both technical and strategic challenges. The company specializes in modernizing data infrastructure, enabling organizations to transition from legacy systems to scalable, cloud-based platforms that support advanced analytics and AI capabilities. This modernization not only improves operational efficiency but also empowers clients to derive actionable insights from their data, driving better business outcomes. Hexaware also emphasizes automation, leveraging cutting-edge tools to streamline data pipelines and reduce costs, which enhances ROI for its clients.

In addition to technical expertise, Hexaware provides strategic guidance to ensure that data initiatives are aligned with business goals. The company works closely with clients to identify key performance metrics and develop tailored solutions that address their unique needs. By fostering a data-driven culture and providing training and support, Hexaware helps organizations overcome cultural barriers and fully leverage their data assets. Through this comprehensive approach, Hexaware enables its clients to bridge the gap between data investment and performance, ensuring sustained value and competitive advantage.