Half of C-suite want to ‘completely overhaul’ how they use data

More than half of C-level leaders (58%) want to ‘completely overhaul’ their approach to data in 2025. That’s according to new research from data streaming platform Confluent.

The research, which surveyed 200 C-level executives in the UK, found that 80% have a clearly defined data strategy in place. Despite this, 43% say their organisations still can’t capitalise on fast-moving insights and trends.

The majority of executives (51%) also can’t access data in real-time, with 43% saying this is slowing down their decision making. As a result, many C-level leaders are pushing for an overhaul of how IT data is used and made available across their organisations.

Across the C-suite, 53% of CTOs want to overhaul their current approach to data, as do 50% of CFOs and 57% of CEOs.

To aid with this overhaul, UK businesses are rethinking how they process and store data. Instead of using batch processing, 77% are now investing or planning to invest in ‘data streaming’, allowing data to be processed, analysed and accessed in real-time. 96% of those surveyed said this type of real-time data streaming will be an ‘important’ or ‘essential’ part of their organisation’s decision making strategy in the year ahead.

Of those who have already switched from batch processing to streaming, three-quarters (77%) say the speed of major business projects has increased. And 78% say day-to-day tasks are finished faster.

Commenting on these findings, Richard Timperlake, SVP of EMEA, Confluent, said, “While it’s great to see that so many business leaders have a clearly defined data strategy in place, this strategy is often built on the back of legacy systems, attempting to work with what’s there, rather than building something new. For businesses of all sizes, these legacy systems are becoming a growing concern, blocking access to data and slowing business decision making.

“To overcome this, it’s great to see so many business leaders pushing their IT and tech teams to overhaul legacy structures and existing data strategies. With so many decisions being made in real-time the days of slow-moving batch processing are over. Businesses need real-time data, delivered straight to the teams, departments, and decision makers that need it most. Data streaming is already making that possible for 80% of the top Fortune 100 companies, and we expect to see investment in this technology continuing to rise over the coming months.”