New research on data analytics reveals that the majority (63%) of B2B companies polled are frustrated by the amount of time it takes to attain the meaningful reports and data insights they seek to make more informed business decisions. It also revealed that most companies believe data analysis-as-a-service—in which the technology and underlying data science are provided by a service provider—would help address this critical business challenge.
Enterprise application and data management analysis firm Data Intensity this week announced the results of the study, conducted with Researchscape International to gauge the current state of data analytics and what hurdles enterprises have yet to overcome.
Key findings of the research include:
Despite Significant Enterprise Spending on Analytics, Obtaining Meaningful Value from Business Data is a Major Obstacle
- Respondents were asked how much they invest annually in current analytics solutions, including systems, people and processes. Results were as follows:
- More than one in three (36%) said $100,000-$499,999
- More than a quarter (26%) said $500,000-$999,999
- One in five (20%) said $1-9 million
- More than six out of 10 (63%) of respondents said the greatest problem with analytics is that it takes too long to get meaningful reports and analysis from their data.
- Tied for the second greatest problem, one in three (33%) said data is not accurate, too difficult to make strategic and operations business decisions from, and too difficult to do predictive modeling/forecasting with existing data and data models.
- Other problems cited include:
- Can’t get access to existing data (29%)
- IT doesn’t provide appropriate support for users (13%)
“It’s essential that enterprises build strong platforms for supply chain analytics to better understand their customers and markets and compete on a global basis. The problem is that analytics must constantly evolve to meet demanding data and business requirements,” said Paul Grone, CIO of Totes Isotoner, marketer of umbrellas, gloves, slippers and other weather-related accessories, in a news release. “The findings of this study underscore the challenges that organizations, such as our own, are experiencing each day—businesses need more options for how to solve these problems. It’s much more complicated than just adding more resources to the team.”
The Idea of an Analytics Software and Service Solution Was Highly Rated; Data Analysis-as-a-Service Capabilities Identified as Most Desired Component
In the next portion of the study, respondents were asked a series of questions about the concept of a cloud-based analytics software and service solution. The idea of the solution overall was rated very highly, with 23% citing it “excellent” and 59% citing it “good.”
The survey also asked what services respondents would want the solution to include. The majority (58%) indicated data analysis-as-a-service was most desired. Other services ranked as follows:
- Data modeling – 47%
- Business consulting – 43%
- Dashboard development – 42%
- Master data management – 36%
- Mobile data analytics – 34%
- Merging internal data with external data (industry benchmarks, market demographics, etc.) – 30%
- System implementations and architecture – 24%
- Social media data analytics – 24%
- Extract, transform, load (ETL) capabilities – 21%
Majority Deem an Analytics Software and Service Solution Both Beneficial and Relevant to Their Business
Additional results about the cloud-based analytics software and service solution in terms of value, purchase likelihood, delivery model and purchase options are listed below:
- When asked how different the solution was from others, nearly three-quarters (73%) surveyed said they considered it to be “very” or “completely different.”
- The solution was also rated by two thirds (70%) of respondents as “very” or “completely relevant” to their business, along with “very” to “extremely” beneficial to their business.
- When asked about purchasing the solution, assuming the price was acceptable, the purchase likelihood was quite strong: 27% said “moderately likely,” 45% said “very likely” and 20% said “completely likely.”
- When asked about the delivery model, 58% of respondents indicated they preferred the method “create custom analytics solution in the cloud,” 43% said “transfer your existing analytics solution to the cloud,” while only 32% said they wanted a “packaged SaaS analytics solution in the cloud.”
“Traditional models for data analysis are hard to buy, use and manage because they require many individual components, disparate solutions and complex architectures, making it extremely difficult for companies to access data and maximize its value,” said John Bostick, president of Data Intensity’s Analytics Division. “These study findings underscore the market need for data analysis-as-a-service, and not a plug-and-play tool, but a custom analytics solution in the cloud that will truly give them the ability to capitalize on their data.”
The survey was conducted from February to March 2015, and was completed by more than 200 B2B respondents in a variety of roles, including C-level executives, directors and vice presidents, across industries such as IT, general management, finance, sales, marketing, operations and human resources.
Source: PR Newswire; edited by Richard Carufel
