5 reasons why your company doesn’t take analytics seriously, and 5 ways to change that

A June 2017, research study conducted by Forbes Insights and Dun & Bradstreet, revealed that 59% of more than 300 companies surveyed did not use predictive modeling or advanced analytics, and 23% still used spreadsheets for most of their data analytics work. Even more startling was the fact that 19% of respondents used no analytical tools more complicated than basic data models and regressions.

This news is not encouraging for big data and analytics champions and managers—nor is it good for their lagging companies, as evidenced by an MIT Sloan Management Review that found that 67% of companies that were aggressively using analytics achieved competitive advantage in their markets.

Sacrificing competitive advantage is reason enough for CIOs and CDOs to place analytics adoption by the company near the top of their priority lists.

What is slowing down meaningful big data and analytics adoption, and what can CIOs and CDOs do about it? See below five common problem scenarios and ways to overcome them.

There are still too many organizations running analytics as a series of “pilot projects” in test tube mode. While testing small pilots was a good initial concept for introducing analytics in companies, too much time has passed to continue this approach. Test tube lab projects suggest that analytics are not ready for prime time in businesses. It is impeding meaningful corporate analytics adoption because individuals at the C-level don’t take these “lab” projects seriously.

Solution: CIOs and CDOs need to move analytics projects out of test mode and into active and meaningful production. They can accomplish this by collaborating with business managers who bring business cases for analytics. Together, they can insert analytics into active production workflows and measure results that either improve revenue or decrease operating costs. If analytics projects don’t contribute to either of these bottom-line-influencing objectives, CIOs and CDOs could discontinue them.

A supply chain manager who is used to conducting business in-person with handshake deals with suppliers won’t willingly move to an analytics evaluation of suppliers.