The Impact of Analytics
More organizations are working their way up the maturity ladder - an encouraging sign that analytics investments are paying off.
During a crisis, leaders look to the numbers to assess, analyze, and act. And 2020 has revealed just how valuable data can be when it comes to navigating uncertainty and forging new paths. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of analytics, with 50 percent of organizations relying on data more than ever before. However, many are still struggling to measure the impact of their efforts: 47 percent still don’t have a clear, quantifiable analytics business case, which makes securing the investments needed to move forward difficult.
Executives are grappling with some important questions: Which areas within data and analytics should we focus on and invest in? How do we go beyond the buzzword of artificial intelligence and use it to drive real change? And how can we capitalize on the growing amount of data to which we have access?
To answer these questions and more, we created the Analytics Impact Index, a global benchmark to help executives understand their company’s relative analytics capabilities and impact. Launched in 2018, the Index is a collaboration between Melbourne Business School, one of the world’s top business schools, and Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm.
This year’s Index validates some insights from 2019 and uncovers several new themes. We continue to see analytics maturity correlated with investment returns as well as targeted analytics investments resulting in greater profits. A well-developed analytics road map backed by C-suite leadership also persists as a key attribute of the most mature organizations.
Based on input from more than 300 companies across the world, the 2020 Analytics Impact Index provides a deep dive into new focus areas, including the financial return on pilots based on artificial intelligence, the optimal investment in building data ecosystems, and the impact of the increase in the volume, velocity, and veracity of data and the challenges that come with that increase.
We also continue to examine the relationship between analytics maturity and profit and reveal some encouraging movement in analytics maturity levels as organizations start to see their analytics investments pay off.
The Analytics Impact Index
Building on insights uncovered in 2018 and 2019, this year’s Analytics Impact Index gives organizations a better understanding of the potential of analytics as well as the capabilities needed to capture the most value. To create the Index, Melbourne Business School and Kearney surveyed more than 300 companies from 40 countries and 33 industries with a median revenue of $300 million.