IDG Connect and Avention reveal the state of Big Data among modern enterprises

Avention, Inc. has announced the results of IDG-Connect's "Big Data for Marketing & Sales: Data Accuracy to Business Impact," an in-depth research report that reveals the major challenges behind improving data accuracy within the enterprise and developing a data-focused strategy that benefits the bottom line.

According to the report, which surveyed 300 respondents from enterprise organisations, raising the bar beyond data accuracy to achieve business benefit is an obvious challenge. Given the broad range of issues organisations face due to the explosion of data, however, it can be difficult to clearly identify major impact areas. When asked which challenge was the most important to address, respondents cited Poor Data Quality (23 percent). While this is clearly an issue across the enterprise, the reality is that data accuracy is the price of admission in doing business in today's markets. When you aggregate all the challenges that are about gaining business intelligence, the number jumps significantly — Difficulty Extracting Insights (42 percent) was highly reported. Other challenges reported by respondents include:
· Excessive Data - 12 percent
· Number of Data Sources - 7 percent
· List Development Time - 5 percent
· Inaccurate Prospect Data due to Age - 4 percent
· Time Spent on Admin vs. Selling - 7 percent

The report finds that access to accurate data is not enough to drive positive business outcomes alone and the biggest challenge organisations face is being able to actually use the data that is on-hand in a way that has the greatest benefit to the organisation's growth. Net results of doing so include an increase in sales quality leads, increased marketing ROI and improved ability to identify key trends.

To do this, the report outlines that in order to drive data transformation, organisations must look beyond the data accuracy imperative to focus on delivery of business impact. To derive the greatest benefits from Big Data, organisations must meet a few specific and important requirements. First, it is critical to implement a strong, articulated data strategy; second, a business must learn which topics are going to be the most relevant to the strategic direction of the enterprise; and third, an organisation needs to implement a solution that purposes and delivers Big Data in a way that is useful to the Lines of Business.

Survey respondents shared their topical priorities and demonstrated the need for strategic information to drive better decision making in the following categories:
· Data Accuracy - 66 percent
· Data Insights - 56 percent
· Sales Cycle Improvements - 46 percent
· Customer Spending & Risk Analysis - 46 percent
· Customer Information and Insights - 45 percent
· New Customer Predictive Analytic - 44 percent

Simply stated, the report finds that data stakes are getting higher every day and how data is gathered, managed, integrated and analysed needs to become a core competency for organisations that want to be competitive, proactive and profitable. "The true value of Big Data is the ability to leverage it for development of an informed strategy that improves decision-making, efficiency and effectiveness for enterprise functions," said Steve Pogorzelski, CEO, Avention. "We are proud to offer and are committed to providing our customers with a solution that harnesses Big Data to provide marketing, sales and research personnel with the level of insight needed to compete in the modern business landscape. By integrating Avention into existing strategy and business resources, enterprises will have the actionable information needed to drive business growth across the organisation."