Increased Spending in 2013 for In-house Analytics Skills and Better
Reporting
STAMFORD, Conn. — A survey by Pitney Bowes Software on Big Data reveals
that the journey from big data to business value has just begun. Of senior
executives, C-level, Vice Presidents and Presidents surveyed in the U.S.,
80% report that getting value from their data is a challenge at their
organization. When asked their biggest challenge to extracting value from
big data, the response most selected at 35% was that there is too much data
and too few resources. In addition, 38% of respondents reported that the
lack of analytics capabilities and skills is the biggest inhibitor to
gaining business value from Big Data.
Technology research firm Gartner has increased its forecast for worldwide IT
spending in 2013 to $3.7 trillion.1 According to the DMA, global advertising
expenditures will grow 4.7% to $480 billion in 2012. Both spending
projections will be largely driven by Big Data initiatives.
Increased IT and marketing spending on Big Data will likely be invested in
staffing to gain business value from the ever-building volumes of customer
data. As technologists, analysts and marketers, we have plenty of data, but
were not very good at analyzing the data and reporting on the insights,
trends and best next actions. In short, the business value is not yet rising
up from the abundance of data.
One executive surveyed reported a need to build skills to make use of the
data. Another concurred by stating they must manage unstructured data and
get automated value from it.
Many of our clients gain business insight by centralizing the data
analytics teams to develop best practices and consistent reporting across
the enterprise, said Pitney Bowes Software President John OHara. In
addition, organizations should resist the temptation to continue one-off
customer data exercises for each marketing campaign. By repeating like data
analytics exercises over time, brands create relevant conversations and
long-lasting relationships with their most lucrative clients and consumers.
Pitney Bowes recommends the following best practices for strategic planning
around data and spending:
Demonstrate the business value of every data project or exercise to senior
executives.
Focus spending on staffing with advanced analytics and reporting skills.
Think about whether centralizing data, data management, and/or data
analytics will help deliver business value.
Create and nurture the discipline of repeating like data analytics
exercises over time to measure changes in business results and client or
consumer behavior over time.
About Pitney Bowes Software
Pitney Bowes Software provides multi-channel solutions that leverage data to
create relevant dialogue between organizations and their customers. These
solutions enable lifetime customer relationships by integrating data
management, location intelligence, sophisticated predictive analytics,
rules-based decision making and cross-channel customer interaction
management to increase the value of every customer communication while also
delivering operational efficiencies.
Pitney Bowes Software is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc.
(NYSE:PBI), a customer communications management technology leader. For more
information, please visitwww.pb.com/software and www.pb.com.
