One-Third IT Decision Makers Have No Big Data Plans – EMC

EMC Corporation released the findings of its global survey that asked thousands of IT decision makers from 50 countries for their perspective on the challenges and opportunities that big data and IT transformation – and related skills – can present to their companies.

Over the last six months this research polled more than 10,700 business and IT management and executives, technical architects, data scientists and storage/infrastructure managers from a range of industries who registered to attend their local EMC Forums.

Highlighted below are examples of countries and topics for which a strong divergence of views were revealed.

Key Findings

• Companies continue to look to IT innovation in order to compete locally and on the global stage:
• 76% of respondents report that their business believes technology investment is a strategic way to achieve its goals. (92% India vs. 65% England)
• The top three drivers for the transformation of IT systems and infrastructure are: 1/Better Business Processes, 2/Innovating Products & Solutions, 3/Enhancing Customer Experience
• 66% of respondents report that they have the correct level of skills and knowledge in place to complete their business priorities successfully. (82% Singapore vs. 52% Ireland)
• Three quarters of respondents report that ensuring skills keep pace with the rate of IT innovation will be a challenge for their organizations over the next three years.
• 68% of respondents agree that IT is now equipped to handle the most essential business priorities – and that now, the biggest barrier is cultural. (90% Korea vs. 39% Poland)

Big Data is giving rise to markedly improved decision making and is having a significant impact on companies’ competitive differentiation and ability to avert risk.

• 79% of businesses surveyed reported that better uses of big data will lead to better decision making. (84% North America vs. 56% Germany)
• 58% of respondents believe that big data will be a key factor in determining winners and losers in their industry. (81% Korea vs. 29% Sweden)
• 36% have already achieved a competitive advantage as a result of big data analytics technology. (79% Taiwan vs. 16% Japan)
• 56% of respondents also agree that big data technology will prove vital in identifying and protecting against cyber-attacks. (74% China vs. 36% Finland)
• Nearly one-third (29%) of companies surveyed have no current plans for implementing big data technology. (43% Italy vs. 9% China)
• While budget was the most important factor for overall business decision making, the most common reason cited as inhibitors to big data adoption were no clear business case or proven ROI (35%), relevancy to business (23%), and business culture being unready for big data (22%).

Helene Barnekow, SVP of WW field & partner marketing, EMC, said: “We weren’t surprised to see that three-quarters of businesses see IT as key to meeting their goals in the next two years – after all, IT can help businesses find efficiencies in a challenging economic climate while providing a platform for innovation for products and customers. It was surprising however to see that one-third of businesses are not considering big data solutions – we expect this to change in the near-term as individuals and companies hear more about the transformative benefits that are achievable with big data analytics technology. The survey also reminds us that to realize the full benefits of IT transformation, organizations must transform the technology layer while transforming the people and process layers.”