Greater access to data has given business leaders real, valuable insights into the inner workings of their organisations. Those who have been ahead of the curve in utilising the right kinds of data for the right purposes have reaped the rewards of better customer engagement, improved decision-making and a more productive business, whilst those who have lagged behind have found themselves faced with an uphill struggle to compete.
This, however, has only been the first part of the data story. As businesses have begun to recognise the positive impact data could have on how they run their business, they’ve taken a predictable next step: they’re collecting more of it. And lots more.
Whilst the logic that more data means greater and more varied business insights is sound on paper, our research suggests that many businesses don’t have a suitable strategy or the technological infrastructure needed to realise true business benefits from their growing data stores. We recently commissioned a survey of information technology decision-makers across US and UK businesses with 500 employees or more to examine enterprises’ data ambitions, investment plans, and return-on-investment (ROI) expectations.
The challenge is clear: around three-quarters (74 per cent) of our respondents believe their organisation has more data than ever but is struggling to use it to help generate useful business insights. So what are the challenges and stumbling blocks that businesses are facing when dealing with their data, and what steps can they take to solve them?
Firstly, it’s necessary to find out what goals businesses have for their data. Nine in ten (90 per cent) IT decision-makers agree that it’s an increasingly high priority for their organisation to be able to better utilise data, with 86 per cent seeing this as being a key means of gaining competitive advantage.
Drilling down further, many are aiming to make more effective use of data to improve organisation-wide operations. The most commonly cited goals were around improving business processes (64 per cent), driving operational efficiencies and reducing costs (57 per cent), as well as making business decisions more quickly (46 per cent).
Alongside this, a number of data goals relate to improving the customer experience. Over half (54 per cent) highlight improved customer service as a goal, and over a third (35 per cent) say the same for providing more tailored and personalised customer experiences. This is hardly a great shock. For any business, understanding the needs of your customer base and being able to shepherd them through their purchasing journey more effectively is key to pushing revenue growth.
At the outset I highlighted that the amount of data businesses collect and generate is due to grow significantly in the future, and that, even today, businesses are struggling to turn their data into actionable insights.
