Measuring Returns on Big Data Investments

Big data investment

Measuring Returns on Big Data Investments

Investments in big data are helping increase revenue and reduce costs, despite significant cultural and tactical challenges.

Big Data’s Impact on Revenue

Over a quarter (27%) said the impact of big data investments exceeded 3% of revenues, while 38% pegged the value of those investments at 1% to 3% of revenues.

Big Data’s Impact on Costs

Just over one in five (21%) said big data has a cost impact of more than 3%, while 39% reported an impact of 1% to 3%.

Level of Focus on Big Data

More than a third (38%) indicated that big data is a major focus of their senior leadership teams, while 21% said big data was the most important way for their organizations to gain a competitive advantage.

Relative Big Data Analytics Strength

16% claimed to be best-of-breed in their industry while more than a third (37%) said they were above-par. CIOs and CTOs tended to rate their capabilities higher than other IT professionals.

Biggest Areas of Big Data Investments

The top four areas of investment are storage, data acquisition, talent and analytics.

Type of Data Being Used

More than half (56%) are using location-based data, while 48% are using standard text data and another 43% are using social media data.

Biggest Cultural Challenges

Just over half (51%) cited adapting to and then refining their big data strategy, followed by 47% that cited learning to use big data to improve the customer experience.

Additional Cultural Challenges

Other challenges included fostering a culture that rewards the use of data and valuing experimentation and creativity, which were both cited by 43% of respondents. Only 10% said there were no significant cultural challenges.

Biggest Tactical Challenges

Nearly half (48%) pointed to making decisions based on data collected as the key tactical challenges, followed by developing a corporate strategy and focusing resources, both at 43%.