Growth or innovation is the chief value of business analytics for more than 75pc of organisations, but for two-thirds of organisations, political or executive resistance keeps them from realising the full value of their investments, a new IBM study suggests.
The IBM Institute for Business Value study, Analytics: A Blueprint for Value, is a global examination of the adoption and use of analytics. Some 1,000 business and IT executives from 70 countries took part in the study.
The results reveal a growing number of respondents (more than two-thirds) are applying business analytics to support revenue-generation strategies, versus cost containment.
In another finding, nearly 40pc of study participants saw a rapid return on investment (ROI) within the first six months of adopting analytics. However, only a small percentage (24pc) of CEOs and COOs are strong advocates for the use of big data and analytics to accelerate decision-making and institute change. The percentage marks a 10pc increase from 2012.
Fred Balboni, global leader and partner, Business Analytics and Optimization, IBM Global Business Services, said that in order to unlock the business value of data, organisations need to identify C-suite “champions” to fully support the use of analytics.
“Emerging roles like the chief data officer and the chief analytics officer are helping companies build an enterprise–wide data strategy to gain competitive advantage,” said Balboni.
“It takes the right alignment of strategy, standards, technology and organisational structure to reap the full potential of what business analytics offers.”
Business analytics image via Shutterstock
