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.