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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

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OVERVIEW SITUATION OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS CONCLUSIONS


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

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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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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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“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.



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. . . 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.



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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.

ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING

Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their

organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services connect you

directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit

forrester.com/consulting.

© 2019, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on

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