Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics survey highlights a significant skills gap in the use of today’s BI and analytics tools
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: London, UK – 23 February 2018
A new Computing Magazine survey provides insight into the mindset of 110 BI and IT managers from mid-size to enterprise organisations in the UK. Among other revelations, it uncovers some of the underlying barriers to adoption surrounding today’s BI and analytics tools. The survey also reveals that 68% of respondents view their organisation as either “following” or “falling behind” when it comes to their current use of analytics. Only 31% of respondents interviewed said that between 40-60% of their decisions were, in fact, driven by data as opposed to gut instinct.
According to the survey, a key blocker to successful analytics tool adoption is that within 80% of organisations, less than half of the people with access to the tools are actually using them. The majority – 58% – believe this is due to a lack of data-interpretation skills, 50% argue for more training, and 43% state that the data team is too time constrained.
The data highlights that existing BI tools require specialized skills to be implemented successfully, and this is impacting speed of decision making and the transition from data to insight. This, then, explains why 70% of respondents are dissatisfied with the present ratio of data-driven versus gut-feel decisions.
Regarding investment priorities, a large majority of respondents – 65% – stated that their top priority was getting data quality and master-data management right. With the imminent arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is clear that security and data governance are critical components for a BI/analytics solution.
In fact, Computing Magazine surveys throughout 2017 identified data governance as just one of the many challenges faced by respondents in trying to optimize their business intelligence efforts, as processes, platforms, automation, devices, and the importance of data governance have all evolved separately. This new research goes further to analyse the impact and importance of machine-learning BI with two thirds of organisations looking to realize its potential within the next two years. When questioned on the cost of not investing in smarter BI tools and processes that use machine learning and AI, 65% of respondents stated that it would result in a loss of competitive edge or market share.
Shawn Deegan, GM of Yellowfin EMEA, comments, “We’ve heard many of these frustrations in person over the last few days at Corinium’s Chief Data Analytics Officers UK event. Analytics leaders seem genuinely excited about the possibilities that machine-learning BI has to offer. Yellowfin’s approach to machine learning uses these technologies to drive a broader adoption of analytics. Our latest release allows business users to make the jump from data to insight without further assistance from their technical teams and it enables data scientists to easily integrate their models into their corporate environment. We’re excited about what we’ve brought to market, as we can already see how it is driving tool adoption and changing the way businesses consume analytics.”
To read the full report, download it now: Business analytics in the machine learning era
About Yellowfin
Yellowfin provides a Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics platform aimed at solving real enterprise analytics challenges and helping business people understand not only what happened, but why. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is an intuitive, 100 percent web-based reporting and analytics platform. More than 25,000 organisations and more than three million end users across 75 countries use Yellowfin every day.
For more information visit: www.yellowfinbi.com
Contact
Lara Irwin
Marketing Manager - EMEA
+44 (0) 1908 887 226
lara.irwin@yellowfin.bi