Big Data confusion continues to confound companies - report

While just over four out of five large organisations will engage in a Big Data project over the coming year to try and understand their customers better, a huge 92% anticipate facing major obstacles in doing so.

A key issue in this context is that the amount of information companies are accumulating has grown by 16% over the last two years and is predicted to rise by another 24% over the following two.

Therefore, in a bid to exploit such information more effectively, a global study commissioned by CA Technologies indicated that 84% of companies have already implemented, or plan to introduce, a big data initiative. Key aims include:

• Improving the customer experience (60%).
• Acquiring new customers (54%).
• Keeping up with the competition (41%).

As a result of such initiatives, nine out of 10 survey respondents are either currently benefiting from, or expect to be in a position to create, more effective, targeted sales and marketing campaigns, which they believe will lead to:

• The development of new products and services (94%).
• Improved competitive positioning (92%).
• Revenue increases (88%).

On the downside, an overwhelming majority of those questioned anticipated having to overcome major hurdles in order to make their project a success. The top five obstacles to be addressed were:

• Insufficient existing infrastructure (32%).
• Organisational complexity (27%).
• Security/compliance concerns (26%).
• Lack of budget/resources (25%).
• Lack of visibility into information and processes (25%).

A vast 98% of survey participants acknowledged that a major investment was required to make their big data project work effectively, while 56% of those with existing initiatives perceived that expanding their remit to include more data sources was a key priority.

David Hodgson, general manager at CA Technologies’ mainframe division, said: “While organisations face challenges in tackling complexities associated with implementation efforts, the results overwhelmingly demonstrate that companies are committed to developing and deploying fully integrated big data strategies.”