Report: Why Your Data-Driven IT Clients Have The Edge In Today's Marketplace
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The most significant shift in the world of Big Data last year was the emergence of velocity as the competitive differentiator, according to IBM Research. In their new report, Analytics: The Speed Advantage, IBM explores why data-driven organizations have the edge in today’s Big Data marketplace.
This sixth annual analytics study uncovered a small group, called “Front Runners,” who were utilizing the speed advantage for competitive gain, “significantly impacting business performance and market position through speed-drive data and analytics practices.” The study’s authors assert, “To compete in today’s digitally infused marketplace, organizations need to emulate these outperformers by swiftly acquiring, analyzing, and acting on data.”
These organizations take a different approach to data than others in their fields. Their employees can access and act on insights from data, combining “digital interactions with business process re-invention.”
The IBM study looks at the habits of these Front Runners to elicit best practices that differentiate them from their peers in the global marketplace and examines the capabilities that make them better able to acquire, manage, analyze, and act on their data with speed and precision.
The survey uncovered four transformative shifts affecting the fast-paced digital marketplace, including:
- The majority of organizations now realize a return on their Big Data investments within a year.
- While customer centricity still dominates analytics activities, organizations are also increasing using Big Data to solve operational challenges.
- Integrating digital capabilities into business processes is transforming organizations.
- The value driver for Big Data has shifted from volume to velocity.
With this emphasis on speed and efficiency in Big Data, the study also then identified those traits that make organizations most effective in the emerging marketplace.
The study found that analytics provide the fuel for an organization to make better decisions faster. The Front Runners in the realm of Big Data are able to manage the data deluge and turn it into value-generating insights ahead of the competition. They are dedicated to the speed advantage, a competitive strategy that enables the rapid acquisition and analysis of data to create agile, precise moves in the marketplace.
The report concludes, “Creating a speed advantage does not necessarily require a real-time solution, but it does require streamlining decisions made within business processes. It also requires enabling the organization to extract the most from its data assets to deliver outcomes that matter.”
Successful Front Runners that achieve the speed advantage can transcend data as something to be managed, creating a strategic tool that fuels digital interactions and re-invents business processes for the modern world. These organizations will differentiate themselves based on their ability to adapt, survive and thrive as the pace of society continues to accelerate.
Click here to read the full study.