Software AG Identifies a Big Data Paralysis

Software AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) announced the results of a global survey showing that while decision makers understand that greater visibility over internal processes and real-time data analysis could lead to operational improvements, they still lack the support and solutions needed to make it a reality. Vanson Bourne, commissioned by Software AG, surveyed 750 global respondents whose organizations have in excess of 500 million dollars in annual revenue.

With the recent explosion of data, especially as the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as an IT trend sweeping across the business world, 73 percent of organizations are finding analyzing this increase in data a major challenge.


Just a dream: Full-visibility and real-time data analysis is still not a reality

The global survey found that organizations recognize the importance of quickly making operational decisions based on real-time data analysis. In fact, 74 percent of decision makers cited an understanding that greater visibility over internal processes could lead to operational improvements. However, harnessing this capability has proven to be a challenge:

• 87 percent of respondents find that it is important to make operational decisions quickly, but approximately the same amount (85 percent) are still experiencing issues in doing so because they are unable to use their data quickly enough. Issues surrounding making quick operational decisions include: missed revenue opportunities (41 percent), poor decision-making (37 percent) and the inability to predict future patterns (27 percent).
• Only one quarter (26 percent) of respondents believe that their IT department is supporting their need for real-time analysis of data.

More, more, more: The incessant need for more data sets, without the ability to use what’s already available

Although organizations want more data to achieve better insights, 97 percent are challenged by data they already have:

• Just one in five respondents are confident in the reliability, accuracy and completeness of their data.
• The majority of organizations cannot act on (57 percent), mine (61 percent) or use real-time data (68 percent).

Heavy investments, despite challenges

The survey found that, on average, organizations have increased their investment in the collection and analysis of data by 21 percent from July 2013-July 2014. Additionally, by 2016, investments are set to significantly increase by 23 percent.

In order to stay ahead of the competition, organizations have no choice but to continually identify ways to make smarter decisions and provide better services,” said John Bates, chief marketing officer and head of Industry Solutions at Software AG. “Properly collecting, analyzing and making decisions based on real-time data is key to proactively preventing issues and improving procedures. However, without the right solutions, this is virtually impossible – the right solution can make the entire process easy, quick and accurate.”

Software AG recently launched a Digital Business Platform, which provides a holistic approach that can manage and govern IT assets and automated business processes, on-premise with cloud integration and advanced analytics, based on an in-memory and event driven architecture. The Digital Business Platform is designed to respond quickly to real-time business events and fast changing market conditions, putting organizations at an advantage.

Vanson Bourne Methodology

During June and July 2014, 750 decision makers were interviewed using a mixture of online and telephone interviewing. Respondents came from nine countries across the globe including the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Brazil and China. To qualify for the research, respondents’ organizations could be from a range of sectors, including public and private, but their organization must have an annual revenue in excess of $500 million. Due to the range of sectors involved in this research, the results are based on the global average to be representative of the target population. A robust multi-level screening process was used to ensure only appropriate respondents participated in the project.

(Insidebigdata)