South: Deloitte survey reveals the escalating importance of analytics

The results of Deloitte’s Analytics Advantage survey* have been announced, shedding light on the state of analytics readiness within leading corporations – and what the future may hold. 

The survey reveals that over half of respondents (55%) recognise the influence analytics is having on their businesses as their marketing and sales groups invest in analytics, second only to finance operations.

Structure proved to be a challenge. Twenty percent of the respondents surveyed said there was no single executive responsible for data and analytics. If there was an individual identified, it was most often the business unit leader (23%) or chief financial officer (18%), and this is leading to structural and communications challenges. Coordination and alignment is needed to realise the true value of analytics and internal discussions should take place to determine who owns the role.

Examining the key barriers to overcome, the survey found that 42% of the organisations surveyed believe their employees do not have the correct analytics skills. Organisations will be slow to fully capitalise on the potential of analytics unless they are able to overcome several key barriers – data management and access to talent being the most problematic. In addition, 31% of organisations believe the data they have is usable, but available only in functional silos.

Overwhelmingly clear was that analytics is becoming more relevant. Ninety-six percent of respondents feel that analytics will become more important to their organisations in the next three years. At the same time nearly half (49%) of respondents assert that the greatest benefit of using analytics is that it is a key factor in better decision making.

“The survey results show that while organisations are slow to fully capitalise on the potential of analytics they are taking on smaller projects to demonstrate real results,” said Tim Phillips, DTTL global leader, Deloitte Analytics. “If used correctly, analytics can help companies to increase sales, identify innovative opportunities and forecast financial performers.”

Thomas H Davenport, DTTL senior advisor to Deloitte Analytics, added: “Organisations are making strides to incorporate more analytics practices into their operations, but to get the most out of the data they are already collecting, they need to have the right talent to analyse the data.

“Organisations should look to several talent-centric pursuits including evolving hiring practices to focus more on the data scientist role, hiring talented people with either computer science or analytics backgrounds, and by working with administrators and faculties at universities to create a masters program in data science.”

* The survey was conducted using more than 100 online surveys and 35 in-depth interviews with senior executives at companies in the United Kingdom, North America and China.