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Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile,
Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
Unified Platforms For Data And Advanced Analytics Drive Business
Outcomes Now And Into The Future
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
Introduction
Businesses today recognize that data is a strategic edge they can use to outpace their competitors. They are looking to their data to discover
and exploit drivers of competitive advantage — to increase both growth and operational efficiency. Many struggle to unlock the potential of their
data due to siloed capabilities, disconnected data and analytics, and machine learning (ML) platform limits. To overcome these challenges,
companies are investing in new, integrated business intelligence platforms. They are already finding dramatic improvements in business
outcomes and foresee far more to come in the future.
In December 2018, Periscope Data commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate data use, management, and struggles at midmarket
organizations. We found that while organizations may struggle with data management and data science capabilities, many are eager to invest
in new technologies to help them overcome these challenges.
Company size
› 28% – 250 to 499
employees
› 38% – 500 to 999
employees
› 34% – 1,000 to 2,499
employees
Position
› 30% – C-level executive
› 19% – Vice president
› 51% – Director
Department
› 52% – IT, including analytics,
BI, and data management
› 27% – Operations
› 12% – Finance/accounting
› 9% – Marketing, sales, HR
Responsibility*
› 32% – Final decision maker
› 58% – Part of decision-
making team
› 10% – Influences decisions
*Note: for their organization’s BI, analytics,
and data infrastructure strategy
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
Disconnected Platforms Block Insights
Across all industries, organizations fundamentally understand
that data is the driver of growth. However, as businesses push to
deliver data insights to their teams to empower them to grow,
many struggle to thoroughly integrate their data into their
business processes.
Skills shortages, coupled with a lack of tools for advanced
analytics and ML, create a large obstacle for organizations to
overcome. Notably, nearly 50% of surveyed businesses were
challenged by the integration of discrete analytics and BI
platforms, while 42% were challenged by a lack of platforms for
advanced analytics.
At the same time, data management remains a significant
challenge for businesses, with over a third citing data
governance and a lack of a single source of truth as roadblocks
to delivering data insights.
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Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
1 2
Analytics And Data Science Are Blocked By Data And Deployment Challenges
Beyond integration, businesses struggle on two fronts within the data and analytics life cycle — data management and data science.
Accessing high-quality integrated data, as well as the process of developing, deploying, and driving adoption of machine learning models,
stands at the forefront.
Critically, businesses are struggling primarily with data accuracy and data consistency; nearly half of surveyed organizations noted that accuracy
was their primary data management challenge. At the same time, organizations struggled with a host of data science proficiencies, including
model development and, crucially, embedding insights into business applications and getting insights into the hands of business users.
Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
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Investment In The Analytics Stack Will
Drive Business Value
To overcome these challenges, organizations are investing in a wide
range of technologies to help them not only manage their data but to
also derive insights from it.
Today, businesses recognize that BI tools, data warehousing, and
advanced analytics platforms will be the fuel for their data-insights
ambitions. At the same time, nearly three-quarters of businesses are
recognizing the significance of creating a strong foundation of data to
power these platforms and are focused on data preparation tools.
83% of respondents say business intelligence tools have the
largest opportunity to drive business value.
Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
1 32
Chatbots, Streaming Data, And Data
Lakes Are The Future
Looking ahead, businesses are eyeing streaming data, data lakes,
and natural language processing as the future frontier to better
empower their business decision making.
Over one-third of respondents will be looking to invest in chatbots
and streaming data in the next two to three years, paving the way
for deeper data insights and driving a more complete
understanding of their customers.
At the same time, these businesses are maintaining their
investments in data lakes and governance tools — the necessary
foundation of BI and analytics platforms.
Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
1 32
Innovation, New ML Capabilities, And A
Culture Shift Top A Host Of New Initiatives
Importantly, these organizations recognize that mere investments
won’t move the needle forward on their data insight initiatives. To
truly unlock new data sources for better business decisions, they
recognize that they must holistically look at their organization’s
approach to big data. Crucially, 57% of organizations are focused on
driving cultural shifts to better incorporate data and analytics across
their business. Additionally, 52% are focused on improving their
organizations’ data-sharing capabilities across business teams.
Coupled with initiatives around anomaly detection and data marts,
businesses are investing heavily to infuse every layer of decision
making with data insights.
51% of respondents are investing in BI and analytics platforms;
24% already have invested in such platforms.
Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
1 2
“How are the following enterprise computing workloads changing
at your organization?”
Companies Are Already Seeing Benefits
From BI And Analytics Platforms . . .
Repositioning data’s purpose to be a driver of decision making has
improved efficiency, employee productivity, and customer
experience.
Importantly, using a data insights platform can fuel a virtuous cycle
— 46% of respondents indicated that a data insights platform has
improved their data management. Better data management, in turn,
will provide the insights platform with better data, powering even
more improved insights.
As well, over a quarter of respondents reported improved team
collaboration at their organizations once the data insights platform
had been implemented, breaking down silos of data between teams
and departments.
Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
1 2
. . . And Foresee More Business Value In
The Future
Importantly, nearly 50% of the surveyed organizations noted that
better strategic planning and improved efficiency are among their top
outcomes achieved from their data and analytics initiatives.
Businesses that have invested time, money, and personnel into the
shared goals of overcoming data management and data science
challenges, having had implemented BI and analytics platforms, are
now reaping the benefits. Forty-six percent of respondents noted
that, in addition to better strategic planning, they are experiencing
improved business decisions by marrying data with experience to
make the tough decisions needed.
Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS
METHODOLOGY
This Opportunity Snapshot was
commissioned by Periscope
Data. To create this profile,
Forrester Consulting conducted
a custom research survey with
100 respondents. The custom
survey began and was
completed in December 2018.
For more information on
Forrester’s data panel and
Tech Industry Consulting
services, visit forrester.com.
Project Director:
Ana Brzezinska, Market Impact
Consultant
Contributing Research:
Forrester’s Application
Development & Delivery
Research Group
Conclusion
Many businesses struggle with data management and data science capabilities. However, to
alleviate those challenges, many are: 1) investing in business intelligence and analytics platforms
and 2) looking to leverage new technologies to improve their analytics capabilities.
Investing in BI and analytics platforms, while simultaneously bolstering a culture of data at your
organization, will empower your business more than ever before. While making the initial
investment in solutions and platforms is a great start on your data insights journey, organizations
must take heed to also ensure that data sharing is easy and embedded as routine across all
departments and teams. Without great data from across the business, BI and analytics platforms’
capabilities are limited. Any company can have data, but unlocking the strategic potential of that
data requires agile integrated platforms for data, analytics, and ML paired with a culture of data,
proper skills, and organizational processes to uncover and exploit these insights regularly and at
scale. Those making these investments are already experiencing significant benefits and their
competitive advantages are only set to increase.
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Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: A Custom Study Commissioned By Periscope Data | February 2019
Turn Your Data Into A Strategic Edge With Agile, Integrated Business Intelligence Platforms