Businesses Need Help With Data Analytics Tools
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Must-Have Purchase
Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents say their organizations are investing more into analytics. -
Unknown Commodity
Nearly three-quarters of business analysts and data analysts aren't using big data tools or don't know which ones are being used within their organization. About two of five data scientists say the same. -
Top Analytics Investment Areas of Interest
Predictive analytics: 59%, Dashboards: 44%, Big data: 44%, Reporting: 38%, Data management: 35% -
Incomplete Process
Less than 13% of survey respondents say their company has finished several of the big data projects that they have in production. -
Biggest Challenges for Analytics
Turning insights into actions: 21%, Gleaning insights from the data: 16%, Manipulating and integrating data: 15% -
Improvement Curve
48% say their company is working on data quality, up from 27% last year. -
Top Analytics Tools
Microsoft Excel: 72%, SQL: 46%, R: 37%, Microsoft Access: 33%, Tableau: 25% -
Impact Sources
16% of respondents whose organization is planning or experimenting with big data say that the biggest trend for 2014 is the lack of available analytics professionals, and 15% say it's the shifting of analytics responsibilities from IT to business.
A clear majority of organizations want to move forward with data analytics initiatives. But they're stumbling out of the gate to do so. Here's why: The majority of analysts and a great deal of data scientists say they don't have access to the tools they need to pursue data projects or they aren't even aware of which ones are being deployed in-house, according to a recent survey from Lavastorm. As a result, far too many of these projects have gotten the green light, but remain unfinished, the Lavastorm findings show. This leads to a number of challenges, including an inability to transform data into actionable insights. "Yes, businesses are more committed to big data analytics than ever before, but far too many are still struggling with how to maximize the benefit," says Drew Rockwell, CEO of Lavastorm. "Investing in analytics is just the first step. It's organizations that go the next level by removing complexities from the analytics process and empowering others in the organization—namely business analysts—that are going be able to turn data insights into actionable business enhancements for long-term success." A total of 495 C-level executives, business analysts, data scientists and analytics professionals participated in the research. For more about the survey (registration required), click here.