Most fear rivals are way ahead on data and analytics

IoT_data_digital2UK bosses may claim data and analytics are vital to business growth yet most still do not have the processes, strategy or even the budget in place to achieve their targets and fear losing customers to rivals who have better systems in place.

That is the damning conclusion of a new study by Realise Unlimited, which quizzed over 80 C-suite execs with annual sales of at least £30m and found over four-fifths (81.5%) agree data and analytics are crucial. But most admitted they were not sure what good data and analytics looked like and remained at least two years away from achieving best-in-class capabilities.

For those who had implemented a data and analytics function, nearly nine out of ten (85.1%), said it was helping their business achieve growth, with similar proportions saying it had enabled better business decision-making (86.4%) and to drive tangible value (86.4%).

The executives were also optimistic about their organisation’s use of data and analytics. For example, nearly all of them (95%) believe they work with high-quality data and 88.9% think their data systems are integrated, scalable, functional and stable.

Meanwhile, 86.4% believe their data and analytics function has improved significantly in the past five years and utilises advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques.

However, only a quarter (25.9%) strongly believe their data and analytics capability is ahead of other companies in their sector, while only 28.4% strongly agreed their organisation has a data-driven culture.

And, despite claiming data was crucial to their targets, many businesses do not have the processes in place to achieve their goals, with less than half of the respondents (46%) strongly agreeing that their business has a clear data strategy.

Furthermore, nearly four-fifths of execs (79.2%) believe it will take between two to five years for their organisation to achieve best-in-class data and analytics; 7% claimed it would take longer than five years.

The most significant challenge bosses face to maximising the value of their data and analytics is a lack of training (33.3%), closely followed by a lack of budget (32.1%), a lack awareness of what data can do (28.4%), and struggling to recruit and retain specialist staff (24.7%).

Other issues raised include a lack of investment in analytics and insight (23.5%), data teams lacking business understanding (23.5%), poor internal communication (21%), data teams not working closely enough with business teams (17.3%) and having siloed data (17.3%).

The research found that more than one in three businesses does not have a single board member primarily responsible for all data and analytics capabilities. Of those that do, chief executives remain primarily accountable.

Nearly three in five organisations (59.1%) leave data capabilities to their CEO, compared to just 9.1% delegating responsibility to a chief data officer. Just a handful of businesses put their chief information officer, chief marketing officer or chief technology officer (all 6.8%) in charge of managing data and analytics.

Realise Unlimited managing director Stephen Welch said: “While UK businesses are aware that data is critical to achieving their targets, they often lack the capability to truly harness the information they have. Collecting and storing vast amounts of data is all well and good, but businesses must look to solutions that help them truly understand their data.

“For example, while the majority of respondents believe they have high-quality data and strong data systems, three-quarters of them also believe their competitors have better capabilities.

“That means they’re inevitably struggling to attract and retain customers and losing them to competitors. Therefore, organisations need to prioritise technologies that help them gain insight into their data and help them to establish a data-driven culture.”

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