Shrewd data management key to effective Business Intelligence

Posted by: Yellowfin Team

According to a recent research report, efficient data management is crucial to ensure optimum performance from any Business Intelligence (BI) solution.

The Aberdeen Group study – Data Management for BI: Fueling the Analytical Engine with High-Octane Information – says that the underlying data that underpins an analytics and reporting system must be managed properly to make sure it’s clean, relevant and delivered in a timely manner to maximize the ability of enterprise BI solutions to deliver actionable insights.

Definition of efficient and effective data management

The research report divides respondent organizations into three categories based on the efficiency and effectiveness of their data management processes:

  • Best-in-Class (Top 20% of aggregate performance scorers)
  • Industry Average (Middle 50% of aggregate performance scorers)
  • Laggard (Bottom 30% of aggregate performance scorers)

The Best-in-Class are distinguished from Industry Average and Laggard companies by two main performance criteria:

  • Ability to integrate new data sources
  • Ability to deliver information at the ‘right-time’ for analysis and decision-making

Drivers

The report revealed the top pressures driving the implementation of data management initiatives as:

  • The inaccessibility of significant volumes of data for business analysis (50%)
  • Delivery of crucial business information is too slow (46%)
  • The complexity and disparity of data has become unmanageable (42%)

Inhibitors to efficient data management

The report identified the top five inhibitors to efficient data management as:

  • Lack of IT resources (52%)
  • The expense of software and services (45%)
  • Poorly defined end-user information requirements (42%)
  • Lack of management support/sponsorship of projects (38%)
  • Business need is not considered high enough to justify expenditure on data management systems and processes (24%)

Benefits of efficient and effective data management

The report identified several significant benefits of an efficient and effective data management system, including:

  • Faster data integration: Best-in-Class organizations took an average of 12 days to integrate new data sources, compared to the Industry Average of 60 days, and 143 days for Laggard organizations.
  • Superior timely information delivery: 93% of information is delivered in ‘right-time’ in Best-in-Class organizations, 83% for Industry Average, and only 34% for Laggard organizations.
  • Increased revenue: Best-in-Class organizations achieved an average 16% increase in year-over-year organic revenue, compared to the Industry Average of 11%, and 7% increase for Laggard organizations.
  • Superior customer satisfaction: Best-in-Class organizations are experiencing an 88% customer satisfaction rate, compared with 80% for the Industry Average, and 78% for Laggards.

Conclusion

Ultimately, efficient and effective data management processes are designed to enable organizations to make better use of their data assets, and turn that raw information into actionable intelligence.

And according to this Aberdeen report, that’s exactly what companies that follow best data management practices can do, with Best-in-Class organizations having 63% of company data accessible by their BI system, 50% for Industry Average, and 32% for Laggards.

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