Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Study Reveals That Organizations Are Not Prepared for a Data-Driven Future

Organizational Silos, Legacy Processes & Lack of Analytics Skills Among the Top Barriers to Transforming into an Intelligent Enterprise, the Study Reveals

MicroStrategy Incorporated, a leading worldwide provider of enterprise analytics and mobility software, announced the results of a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services (HBR-AS) study, “An Inflection Point for the Data-Driven Enterprise”, which polled 729 business leaders and personnel across various industries around the world.

“If you want to manage real transformation, you need to have a proper end-to-end data management, data security, data processing platform company-wide”

The HBR-AS study reveals concerning statistics for data-driven transformation, including:

• Nearly one-third (32%) of respondents indicate their organizations are still operating on static and backward-looking reporting.
• Only one in 10 of respondents say their organizations have embedded data and analytics into all processes and decision making, and even fewer have advanced to predictive analytics or automated decision making.
• While 75% say it’s very important to deliver actionable intelligence to employees across the enterprise – the foundation for an Intelligent Enterprise – less than a quarter (24%) indicate their organizations are able to do so.
• Only 28% of respondents say their organizations are focused on introducing new business models, which is the key to digital transformation.

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Download An Inflection Point for the Data-Driven Enterprise today, or learn more about these findings by visiting the MicroStrategy blog.

“The future belongs to organizations that fuel the experiences of people, applications and devices with insights,” said Marge Breya, CMO, MicroStrategy Incorporated. “We are confident that organizations can achieve their vision of digital transformation through a combination of technology, technique and clear vision, and evolve to become a more Intelligent Enterprise.”

HBR-AS Study Highlights Top Organizational and Technology Barriers, Next Steps

In their efforts to advance their data and analytics capabilities, organizations face a number of challenges. According to the report, the most significant organizational barriers to data-driven enterprise evolution are organizational silos, legacy processes, lack of key digital or data analytics skills, and resistance to change. When it relates to technology barriers, legacy systems and infrastructure top the list, followed by the lack of a centralized platform, data silos, and data consistency issues. While much of the data analysis going on today remains backward-looking, the focus is rapidly shifting toward more forward-looking, and even automated, data-driven decision making.

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Furthermore, not only is advanced analytics the next step to a data-driven transformation, but digital identity, big data, cloud and AI also top the long list of capabilities respondents say will be critical to their organization’s future performance.

A Roadmap to the Intelligent Enterprise

The Intelligent Enterprise is the ultimate data-driven organization capable of leveraging data and enterprise assets to fuel the experiences of people, applications, and devices  in aggregated and unique ways that have previously never been possible. It delivers intelligence, by means of personalized insights or recommendations and predictions that are contextual to where you are, to the device you’re using and what you’re doing.

According to the report, organizations find themselves at an inflection point, as they seek new ways to transform the business. Companies that want to stay on the right side of digital disruption require a roadmap for technological and organizational evolution, as well as an end to siloed approaches. “If you want to manage real transformation, you need to have a proper end-to-end data management, data security, data processing platform company-wide,” says data and analytics thought leader Ronald van Loon.

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This requirement extends all the way to the board. “Every board member and CEO needs to understand that data assets have to be managed the same way they manage any other asset,” says Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst with Constellation Research. “If they don’t, they will be disrupted.”

HBR-AS surveyed 729 business leaders and personnel across various industries around the world for the report, which was jointly commissioned by MicroStrategy; Snowflake Computing, Inc., the only data warehouse built for the cloud; and Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. Industries surveyed included financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail/CPG, and technology.

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