Organizations planning to accelerate data & analytics initiatives and spend in 2021: Survey

The COVID-19 pandemic will not hold back data priorities this year, but rather add to organizations’ urgency and drive additional investment, according to ibi’s Data and Analytics Trends and Directions 2021 survey.

 44% of respondents plan to increase spending on data in 2021 and 38% will spend about the same as they did in 2020, totaling 82% investing as much or more in 2021.

 “Virtually all our customers are focused on data-driven digital transformation, and moving data to the cloud is a key part of that process,” said Dennis McLaughlin, vice president, product management, ibi, a TIBCO company. “Our survey confirms that cloud migration – already a top priority for organizations – is gaining momentum. We believe this reflects the need to deliver on the data needs of employees working from anywhere.”

 Key Obstacle to 2021 Data Initiatives: Data Quality, Security, and Training

A key finding from the survey revolves around what keeps management up at night. Tied for first place, 72% of respondents feel quality and security are the top data issues vexing executives. 41% noted that the lack of a “single version of the truth” in their data is one of the key barriers to successfully deploying data in their organizations. Despite these concerns, respondents identified training as another top concern, with only 14% of respondents indicating that their organizations maintain a strong training program around data and analytics.

Other findings of the study include the following:

• Cloud migration is gaining momentum: 50% of respondents are using on-premises storage today, and that number will drop to 10% over the next three years, with use of cloud for data storage increasing to 83% (seven% don’t know).
• Data is still key to digital transformation: 94% say data is very or somewhat important to digital transformation; 19% noted that the health crisis will further drive data as a priority in how new technologies will change services or their business.
• Data and analytics continues to be top of mind: 70% say executives and senior managers are very aware of the potential business advantages of data and analytics; 65% say their organizations are using data and analytics to drive performance improvements; 61% are driving business strategy with data and analytics; and 53% are leveraging data and analytics to improve the customer experience.
• Data cultures are starting to take root: 53% say their organizations are committed to providing access to data where it’s needed – a key practice for ensuring data democratization, including helping leadership and business users acquire data skills.
• Most data priorities will not be significantly impacted by COVID-19: Respondents say that key business initiatives, such as compliance (seven%), cloud (14%), and digital transformation (19%) will be little changed by the pandemic, but 48% indicate that the continuing health crisis will influence support requirements for staff working from home.

“Our COVID-19 Impact on IT Spending survey also showed that spending on data and analytics remains strong,” said Chandana Gopal, research director, business analytics, IDC. “In highly data-driven organizations, there is greater trust in results from analytics, influencing better decisions based on insights.”