Data report final

Thought Leadership League Data Optimization & Integration Survey©2015 Thought Leadership League

3 CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

A perception gap exists around the priorities of non-IT

professionals.

#3

Perception Gap

Perception GapIT Professionals perceptions of theseActual views of Non-IT Professionals

8

7

6

5

4

The biggest impairments to progress remain consistent and relate to systems, resources,

and budget.

#2

Top Challenges to Accessing Data

53%Cumbersome Legacy Systems

67%Budget Constraints

73%Lack of Internal Resources

73%Too Many Separate Systems

Current Data Access Satisfaction

SatisfiedSomewhat SatisfiedDisatisfied

Current Data Access

Satisfaction

60

50

40

30

20

10

000%

50%50%

No organization participating in the survey was satisfied with their current abilities to access data needed for reports.

#1

VALUE OF DATA AND REPORTSImproved data access provides a number of opportunities to significantly improve organizations’

abilities to achieve their operational performance.Top 4 Benefits of Improved Data Access

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100Significant Agreement

Some AgreementDisagreement

Reports are Critical to Managing Daily Operations

Real-Time Data is Vital to Sustaining a Competitive Advantage

Data Can Streamline Operations and Improve Financial Performance

Data Can Help Attract and Retain Customers

81%6%13%

77%15%8%

92%8%

77%8%15%

Satisfaction with Current Reports

SatisfiedSomewhat SatisfiedDisatisfied

Current Reports

Satisfaction

70

60

50

40

30

20

1010

0

6%

63%

31%

MOST DESIRED DATA ACCESS IMPROVEMENTS

REMOTE SENSOR DATA

MOBILE DATA

REAL-TIME DATA

58.3%Significant Agreement



25.0%Some Agreement

30.8%Some Agreement

15.4%Some Agreement

16.7%Disagreement

7.7% Disagreement

7.7% Disagreement

Thought LeadershipLeague

InfoBlast

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR DATA81% of organizations agree or strongly agree that reports are critical to the managing of daily business operations but 94% of organizations are not satisfied with their reports. A key contributor to the dissatisfaction with reports is data access where 50% of respondents report data was difficult to access.

Data Optimization & Integration:Measuring the Opportunity ofImproved Data Access

© 2015 Thought Leadership League. Page 1

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Key Findings

81% of organizations agree or strongly agree that reports are critical to the managing of daily business operations with 50% of respondents reporting data was difficult to access.

92% of organizations believe data can help streamline operations and improve performance but 94% of organizations are not satisfied with their reports.

AA significant disparity between IT professionals and their perception of non-IT professionals exists and potentially impairs efforts to improve data reporting.

Access to Real-Time Data (8.23 out of 10) is the strongest scoring need.

Source: Thought Leadership League 2015 Data Optimization & Integration Study

Data Optimization and Integration: Introduction

To extract value from the growing repositories of data organizations collect, the data must be easily transformed into actionable information. This report examines the areas of opportunity organizations believe offer the greatest potential for improved data access and highlights the notable differences in the perceptions between IT and Non-IT professionals that hinder improvement in data reporting.

Measuring the Business Benefit Measuring the Business Benefit of and Access to Data

According to the Thought Leadership League’s recent data optimization study, 77% of organizations score the importance of business data as highly significant. However, only 6% of organizations are highly satisfied with the quality of their reports and 50% of these organizations are dissatisfied with their organizations’ ability to access data. The impact of this dichotomy between benefit and access is clearly reflected in the results of the study and in the perceptions of IT professionals.



Figure 1: Breakdown of Opportunity Significance

TheThe opportunities reported with the greatest potential for data optimization are directly related to the core business operations within organizations. This reflects the greatest concentration of demand for information within organizations, which is related to tracking and monitoring factors that directly impact the success of core products, services, and solutions. The points that score the highest all relate to operations, with the exception of access to real time data. Real time data needs scored below 60%.

ThisThis is explained by the distribution of organizations within the study. A percentage of the participating organizations do not have large logistic operations. This lack of need understates the reported potential. Adjusting for this factor, the reported need exceeds 60%.

We were somewhat surprised to see the cost savings opportunities are not perceived as presenting as significant of an opportunity to improve operations and overall financial performance. For example, only 50% of organizations perceive significant value in using data to optimize energy and utility consumption.

WithWith the expanding global focus on energy consumption and global warming combined with the expanding draught in California and other western and mid-western states, we expect to see greater demand for utility and water consumption reporting and control over the next few years.



Figure 2: Breakdown of Desired Data Access

With regards to types of data access organizations currently desire, the strongest point of agreement is a desire for improved access to real-time data, which scored an 8.2 out of 10.0, followed by improved access to mobile data, which scored 7.3 out of 10.0. Both results were expected.

AAccess to remote sensor data is not reported as a significant need; however, Figure 1 indicates a strong belief in the operational value remote sensor data provides. The scoring difference reflects the difference between future desires and current needs.

In the future, the participating organizations see significant potential in using remote sensors to improve their operations. However currently, access to remote sensor data is not a significant need compared to improving access to real-time data and mobile data.



Figure 3: Breakdown of Current Challenges

The challenges facing organizations seeking to improve data optimization and reporting are expected. 73% of organizations reported the proliferation of systems within their organizations and a lack of available resource are a significant challenge with 67% reporting budget constraints are a significant challenge.

TheThe lowest reported challenges are data accuracy and cleanliness, inter-department conflicts, and lack of executive support with only 40% of organizations reporting them as a significant challenge.

However, the greatest potential challenge facing data optimization efforts may be a perception gap among IT professionals.



Figure 4: Perception Gaps between IT and Non-IT Professionals

What is surprising was the significant difference between the value IT professionals place on data optimization efforts and how they perceive their non-IT counterparts view the same opportunities. At the onset of the survey, it was anticipated IT professionals believe their non-IT counterparts have the greater demand for improved data optimization. The result was the opposite.

IIT professionals score their demand for improved data optimization 1 - 3 points higher than their non-IT counter parts. Given this information, a supporting survey was conducted in which over 5,000 non-IT executives within the same industries were polled as an effort to measure the actual perceptions of non-IT professionals.



Figure 5: Actual vs. Assumed Perceptions of Non-IT Professionals

The actual perception among Non-IT Professionals closely matched those of IT Professionals with both indicating strong demands for improved data optimization. However, as the figure shows above, the supporting survey confirms a perception gap among IT professionals and non-IT professionals. IT professionals consistently score non-IT professionals’ perceived value of improved data optimization 2 points lower than actual.



Conclusion

So what is the potential value of improved data reporting and what is holding organizations back from taking full advantage of their data?

BasedBased upon the results of the survey, there is clear evidence supporting a strong demand and desire among organizations to enhance their access to data and improve overall reporting. In particular, organizations have a heightened focus on data that directly helps improve core day-to-day operations and improving access to real-time data.

WithWith regards to obstacles, the misperception among IT professionals of their non-IT counterparts highlights an issue that may impair the advancement of data optimization projects. As the survey shows, IT professionals incorrectly believe their non-IT counterparts place the same value on data as they do.

This perception gap creates the potential for an environment in which IT professionals are not as focused on data optimization projects because they do not perceive a strong internal demand within their organizations.

AAt the Thought Leadership League, it is believed the misperception stems from a bias among non-IT professionals that technology projects are cumbersome, costly, time consuming, and often don’t meet their expectations. This cost bias creates conflict that is interpreted among IT professionals as a lack of interest among their non-IT counterparts. When in fact, the resistance is related to a perception of cost not a lack of need.

WithWith the development of hosted, open source, and applications with native APIs, a challenge facing organizations in improving data reporting and optimization may be a lack awareness of how efficient emerging technologies have become and how much easier they can be to integrate into their organizations.

The Thought Leadership League will be conducting a follow up research survey to test the causes of the perception gap and attempt to quantify the impact during Q3 2015.



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Reports are critical tools for managing operations

There is a general lack of satisfaction for the quality of reports

Improved access to data can improve operations

A cost and time perception bias may be impairing efforts to improve data

Expanded awareness of new technologies may help overcome cost bias

Key Takeaways

Brought to you by Thought Leadership LeagueCopyright © 2015



About Thought Leadership League

Thought Leadership League conducts research studies designed to help its clients and research participants develop best practices and identify industry benchmarks they can use to improve their operations, validate the benefits of their products and services, and achieve their business objectives.

WWe seek to make Research about more than just numbers and analysis. While recognizing ways to improve business practices for both research sponsors and participants, a secondary aim is to reach a meeting of minds by which members can demonstrate their expertise and proven practices, then help each other to grow and continuously improve.

To learn more about Thought Leadership League, please call us at 573-864-2659 or email us at [email protected].

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