Don’t Fall on the Wrong Side of the Digital Divide

The majority of organizations are more focused on deploying analytics to improve operations than they are on customer-centric analytics efforts, according to a recent survey from Capgemini Consulting's Digital Transformation Institute. The resulting report, titled "Going Big: Why Companies Need to Focus on Operational Analytics," devotes much attention to companies divided into two categories: "Game changers" and "laggards." Game-changers are described as organizations which have integrated most of their analytics initiatives within business processes, and have realized benefits from this. Laggards are at an introductory stage in deploying analytics within operations, and are struggling to reap benefits from these initiatives. Game-changers are also more likely to utilize more than half of their operations data, while routinely collecting unstructured data to improve overall data quality. With this, they're better positioned to incorporate analytics into their daily decision-making. "(Big data) has the potential to transform the operating effectiveness of organizations—separating the world into data-enabled leaders and those who are struggling to respond," according to the report. "By making the most of their operational data, organizations can make better decisions, bring their products and services to market more quickly and efficiently, and gain the intelligence and insight to compete in a volatile and complex economic environment. From transforming ways of working, to supporting growth strategy, operational analytics is the big untapped prize of digital transformation." A total of 600 operations executives involved with executing or managing operational analytics initiatives took part in the research.