The last decade has seen incredible business enthusiasm around becoming data-driven. With digital disruption surprising and sometimes snuffing out even the best-known brands, enterprise organizations have received a clear wake-up call that the only constant is change – and insights are needed to move quickly and successfully forward.

A new survey of 500 analytics and business intelligence professionals from around the globe reveals that while some organizations and industries have opted to hit the snooze button on data-driven business transformation, others are off to a fast start in a new decade that will demand real-time, informed experiences and decisions.

Here are 12 striking statistics from the new research by MicroStrategy:

  1. 94% of business professionals say data and analytics is important to their business growth and digital transformation, up 4% from 2019.
  2. 57% say their organization’s analytics programs are on par with their peers, while 26% believe their organization is ahead of its competitors.
  3. 56% of organizations leveraging analytics are experiencing faster and more effective decision making, and more than half (51%) are realizing better financial performance.
  4. 46% of organizations have been able to identify and create new product and revenue streams though their analytics use.
  5. 45% of brands are currently leveraging analytics to develop new business models.
  6. 59% of organizations are currently using advanced and predictive analytics.
  7. The top three things holding most organizations back from using data and analytics more effectively are data privacy and security concerns (43%), limited access to data and analytics across the organization (29%), and a lack of analytics-related talent and training (27%).
  8. 95% say that they will invest either more or about the same in their analytics initiatives over the next year, with 65% saying they will invest more. Large enterprise organizations (those with 10,000 or more employees) are most enthusiastic about their investment plans – 79% of large enterprises say they will invest more.
  9. 65% of organizations say they will invest more in the coming year in hiring data and analytics talent. Large enterprise organizations (those with 10,000 or more employees) are most enthusiastic in their investment plans, with 75% saying they will invest more.
  10. 58% of global respondents say their organization now has a Chief Data Officer (CDO). While 78% of telecommunications organizations already have a CDO, just 28% of government agencies can say the same.
  11. Many data-driven cultures are getting stuck at the top. While 81% of management teams and 76% of executives have access to their organization’s data and analytics to make informed decisions, only 52% of front-line employees do. The starkest contrast is in the United States, where just 44% of front-line employees have analytics access compared to 81% of management and executive teams.
  12. When most employees are required to get data to make a business decision, only 3% are able to do it in seconds. For 60%, it takes hours or days.

For more statistics from the global survey, as well as geographic-specific results (Brazil, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United States), you can download the 2020 Global State of Enterprise Analytics Report here.