This is a far cry from the current hype around analytics and big data, raising the questions:
- How can an organization evolve to effectively leveraging analytics?
- What skillset, mindset, toolset adjustments need to be made to “think outside of the box”?
These are core questions that managers must ponder. Many companies start their analytics journey by executing one or two projects of small scope. That may be fine at the outset, but in order to address the larger performance improvement issues, companies need to move up the maturity curve from repeatable to defined and then to managed and optimized.
The following are research insights highlighted by the survey sample of 930:
- Business analytics is still in the “emerging stage.” While analytics has gone mainstream, most organizations still rely on traditional technology. Spreadsheets are the number-one tool used for business analytics.
- Organizations are proceeding cautiously in their adoption of analytics. Use of business analytics within companies has grown over the past year, but at a moderate rate. Analytics also tend to be used narrowly within departments or business units, not integrated across the organization.
- Intuition based on business experience is still the driving factor in decision-making. Analytics is used as part of the decision process at varying levels, depending on the organization.
- Companies are looking to analytics to solve big issues, with the primary focus on money: reducing costs, improving the bottom line, and managing risks.
- Data is the number-one challenge in the adoption or use of business analytics. Companies continue to struggle with data accuracy, consistency, and even access.
- Many organizations lack the proper analytical talent. Businesses that struggle with making good use of analytics often don’t know how to apply the results.
- Culture plays a critical role in the effective use of business analytics. Companies that have built an “analytics culture” are reaping the benefits of their analytics investments.
Nothing earth shattering here….Like all innovation, adoption will take time and require significant organizational changes across toolsets, skillsets and mindsets. But make no mistake, companies that don’t embrace analytics in a fast paced competitive environment will be left behind.
What Is Your “Analytics Maturity ”?
In order to change, you have to baseline first – what is your analytics maturity. The business analytics maturity curve represents the arc of progression every company moves along. Maturity levels are measured by your level of experience, the implementation and support strategies you use, and your degree of sophistication around data.
Analytics maturity can be assigned to one of the following four groups:
- Reactive businesses engage in business analytics only in a reactionary mode, e.g., by complying with a customer request or in response to competitive pressure.
- Responsive companies are engaging in business analytics, but mostly as separate, one-off projects.
- Proactive organizations have established processes, infrastructure, and resources to support business analytics in a programmatic manner.
- Aggressive companies aggressively expand analytics capability as an important growth opportunity and encourage their customers to adopt it.
Which type of organization do you belong to? Where do you want to be?
Notes and References
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek Research Services study, conducted among 930 businesses across the globe in various industries. Focus of the study is to provide insight into the current state of business analytics in today’s organizations. Also examine the challenges companies face when using analytics, and explore tactics favored by companies who have succeeded in using analytics more effectively than their peers.
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