Executives: business intelligence and data analytics ‘crucial’

The majority of c-level executives say business intelligence (BI) and data analytics will be “crucial” to the future of their businesses - but many lack coherent strategies for putting such platforms into place.

A report by MHR Analytics found 88 per cent of senior executives see BI and data as important to their operations, but just 17 per cent have support for their strategy from other senior members of the business.

The poll of 300 UK c-level execs also found 59 per cent don’t understand big data as much as they would like to and just over half (52 per cent) say it’s difficult to put together a business case for big data.

The research found that a third of organisations are at the early stage of their journey to integrating BI and data as fully-formed parts of their business operations, identifying this 33 per cent as being at the first stage of the data analytics path, known as ‘Unaware’. This means there is no senior buy-in at the company and no “defined processes” for analytics, decision-making or performance metrics.

Nick Felton, director of MHR Analytics commented: “It’s clear from our research that c-level executives are beginning to recognise how critical data analytics will be for the future of their business. In 2017 we expect to see organisations looking at how they can take their data strategy to the next level.

“With the abundance of information that’s available today, businesses are turning to BI to unlock the power of the data that their activities generate in order to become more competitive players in their respective industries. This is a trend that’s here to stay and in order to get the most out of their BI projects, businesses need to create a strategy that spans the entire organisation with a consistent approach across all departments and business units.”

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