State of Data Insights 2017

In March of this year, we put together a survey to understand how people in different roles and at different companies are using data to find insights that are important to them. We collected 170 responses from respondents of various roles and companies – ranging from C-level executives and VPs to individual contributors, early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies – to understand how they access, use, and analyze data.

What really surprised us was that despite having the data, nearly 70% of organizations said they encountered behavioral questions on a weekly to monthly basis that they couldn’t answer using their current tools. And each of those behavioral questions left unanswered could result in a lost opportunity or an unresolved issue.

Despite being unable to answer many behavioral questions, the respondents did, however, recognize the value that data has in their organization: 88% of the companies represented indicated they understand the importance of being data-informed, and 91% acknowledge the criticality of having an analytics solution in place.

The State of Data Insights Report uncovers many challenges and opportunities that data and analytics play in today’s businesses. Those include:

• Current analytics solutions aren’t meeting business needs.
• Analytics is becoming more important to a wider variety of people.
• Most respondents cannot answer data questions themselves.