Data Readiness and Maturity Assessment

Why organisations struggle

Many organisations believe they are “data-driven” or “AI-ready”. In reality, leaders often lack clear answers to fundamental questions:

• Scalability: Are our data and analytics foundations strong enough to scale?

• AI Risk & Responsibility: Can we deploy AI responsibly without increasing risk?

• Regulatory Exposure: Are we genuinely prepared for regulatory scrutiny — or just assuming we are?

• Value Creation: Are we actually realising and evidencing value from our data and analytics investments?

Technology alone does not answer these questions. Objective, enterprise-wide evidence does.

What this assessment delivers

Our Data Readiness and Maturity Assessment provides senior leaders with clear, defensible answers to four critical questions:

• Scale-Ready
  Can our data and analytics capabilities grow without increasing cost, risk, or complexity?

• AI-Ready
  Can we deploy AI and automation safely, responsibly, and at scale?

• Regulator-Ready
  Can we demonstrate compliance, governance, and control with confidence?

• Value-Ready

  Are we realising and evidencing value from our data and analytics investments — or is value being lost through misalignment, low adoption, lack of trust, or ineffective operating models?

This is not a generic maturity model. It is a decision-oriented assessment designed for Boards, Executive Committees, and Risk & Audit stakeholders.

What makes this assessment different

The following principles define how the assessment is designed and delivered:

1. Objective and evidence-based, not opinion-based
   Findings and conclusions are grounded in documentation, interviews, and observable practices.

2. Independent and vendor-agnostic
   No tools, platforms or vendors to sell or recommend — just impartial insight.

3. Business-led, not technology-led

   Focused on decisions, outcomes and risk, rather than tools, platforms or architectures.

4. Decision-led, not score-led

   Scores are used to support readiness decisions and prioritised actions, not as the primary output.

5. Designed for executive decision-making
   Delivers clear readiness conclusions and prioritised next steps leaders can act on.

6. Separates perception from reality

   Distinguishes assumed capability from evidenced readiness using objective criteria.

7. Current-state truth over future aspiration

   The assessment focuses on actual current capability, not plans, intentions, or stated ambitions.

8. Replaces fragmented reviews

   Provides a single, coherent enterprise readiness verdict in place of multiple disconnected assessments.

9. Clear accountability and risk focus

   Shows where unclear ownership, weak controls or inaction could expose the organisation to avoidable risk.

10. Enterprise-grade and defensible
    Designed to withstand challenge from Boards, Executive Committees, Audit, Risk, Legal and Regulators.

11. AI-era ready by default

    Explicitly assesses the foundations required for safe, scalable and responsible AI.

12. Principal-led delivery
    Delivered end-to-end by a senior consultant — not delegated to junior teams.

What we assess (high level)

The assessment covers the full data and analytics landscape, including:

• Strategy, vision and value alignment

• Data governance and accountability

• Architecture, platforms and integration

• Data quality, reliability and lifecycle management

• BI, analytics and AI readiness

• Security, privacy and regulatory compliance

• Operating model, skills and data culture

Each dimension is broken-down into sub-dimensions and all is assessed using a calibrated 1 to 5 maturity scale, ensuring consistency and credibility.

What you receive

At the end of the engagement, you receive:

• An enterprise-wide maturity baseline

• Clear AI-ready, Scale-ready and Regulator-ready verdicts

• A prioritised, practical roadmap aligned to risk and value

• Clear guidance on what you can safely do next — and what should wait

Outputs are suitable for Executive, Board, Audit and Regulator discussions.

How long it takes and how much it costs

The Data Readiness and Maturity Assessment is delivered as a fixed-fee engagement, and the fees and duration of the engagement are tailored to organisational size and complexity.

• Small organisations: typically 2 to 3 weeks

• Medium organisations: typically 4 to 6 weeks

• Large organisations: typically 8 to 10 weeks

Please contact us for a no-obligation call so that we can better understand your situation and advise. We may also be able to customise our services and deliverables based on your budget, preferences and priorities.

Who this is for

The Data Readiness and Maturity Assessment is typically commissioned by:

• Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and Executive Teams

• Chief Data Officers (CDO) / Directors of Data / Analytics / Digital Leaders

• Chief Information Officers (CIO) / Chief Technology Officers (CTO) / Technology Leaders

• Risk, Compliance and Internal Audit teams

• Boards seeking clarity on AI and data risk

• Businesses seeking to take their data seriously as a strategic asset to make the right decisions and succeed

No obligation. No pressure. A confidential conversation.