• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 4, 2021

Email marketers who are flummoxed by an inability to get data are not alone, judging by Data And Analytics Trends and Directions 2021, a study by ibi, a data and analytics software company owned by TIBCO.

A single version of the truth is elusive for 41% of companies, the study shows  And 38% complain that users are not trained to use the tools.  

Moreover, 35% of firms are challenged by lack of budget and 35% by a dearth of resources or skills. 

But the situation may improve because 44% of firms plan to spend more on data initiatives, although 38% will stay at their current levels.  

COVID-19 has altered data their priorities. These now include:

• Work-at-Home Programs — 48% 
• New initiatives — 28% 
• Digital transformation — 19% 
• Moving to cloud — 14%

But email specialists may be disappointed to note that marketing is near the bottom of the list of uses that support businesses. They use data and analytics to: 

• To drive performance improvements — 65% 
• To drive business strategy — 61% 
• To monitor and improve financial performance — 49% 
• To manage projects — 45% 
• To manage workforce productivity — 45% 
• To drive digital transformation — 40%
• To monitor compliance — 37% 
• To manage risk — 33% 
• To support sales — 33%
• To support marketing and customer acquisition — 28% 
• To identify new product and service opportunities — 25% 
• Other — 6%

But marketing may figure into some of the future priorities:  

• Predictive analytics — 77% 
• Artificial intelligence — 45%
• Machine learning (ML) — 39% 
• Geographic information systems (GIS) — 35%
• Integrating ML with business process applications — 28%
• Text and sentiment analysis — 21% 
• Internet of Things — 19%
• Deep learning — 14%

What keeps leadership up at night? For 72%, it’s data security, and for the same percentage, it's data quality. 

Where do companies think they stand? 

Of those polled, 52% think they are equal to their peers, while 26% are just getting started and 22% ahead of the game. 

At the same time, 53% are committed to putting data into the hands of users, while 49% are told from the top that data is important and 37% believe decision-making should be data driven.  

The study shows that “cloud migration -- already a top priority for organizations -- is gaining momentum,” states Dennis McLaughlin, vice president, product management at ibi.

McLaughlin concludes: “We believe this reflects the need to deliver on the data needs of employees working from anywhere.”

Ibi, a TIBCO company, surveyed 150 data and analytics leaders in 12 industries.