Unprecedented advances in data analytics are constantly changing our expectations for customer experiences, operational efficiency, product innovation, and the security of digital assets. As consumers, we see the effects of analytics through personalized experiences, time-saving technology, and inspiring innovation in personal devices.
At Pure Storage®, we also want to quantify how these advances are impacting the operations of businesses that bring us better experiences and the products that are changing our world. We also want to take lessons from companies that are leaders in the deployment of data analytics. For this reason, we’ve sponsored updated research to track the continuing impact of modern data analytics.
Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) has released the results of research sponsored by Pure in their report, “The Impact of Advancing Your Analytics Maturity.” As data-driven initiatives are broadly embraced, roadblocks such as skills gaps and operational complexity can prevent IT organizations from recognizing the full benefits of their investments.
The study of analytics maturity helps IT organizations in two ways. It enables:
- The industry to take a closer look at the impact of analytics leadership across key enterprise performance indicators.
- Enterprises to identify the infrastructure practices that can help break through roadblocks to achieve analytics maturity.
What are the key findings of this study? After compiling the survey results, ESG was able to report the outcomes of analytics investments by comparing a cohort of mature analytics organizations to their less mature peers. Stage 3 organizations represent the most mature organizations, followed by Stage 2, and then Stage 1 organizations. The survey findings indicate continued, impressively strong results from investments for generating positive customer experiences and blazing-fast product innovation. Recently, the ability to improve operational efficiency has helped pick up the pace.
In our survey, Stage 3 organizations were able to increase revenue per employee by more than three times in comparison to their less mature peers. In addition, the study found that Stage 3 organizations:
- Are 2.5x more likely to outpace competitors on customer satisfaction.
- Have increased revenue per employee 350% more over the past two years.
- Launched 46% more products on average over the last two years.
What are some of the habits that lead to this success? The study took a closer look at the best practices of mature data analytics organizations as they relate to investments in data infrastructure. Notable differences showed in the way mature organizations look at investments for performance, cloud-like agility, and operational excellence. Here are some of the highlights:
- Flash is heavily deployed. Stage 3 organizations are 66% more likely to use all/most flash storage for their data warehouse and/or data lake environment compared to Stage 1 organizations.
- Analytics data will continue to live across a mix of clouds. Five years from now 66% of respondents expect to operate a data warehouse on a hybrid mix of public- and private-cloud solutions, and 65% expect to operate data lakes with hybrid-cloud solutions.
- Investing is key to operational efficiency. Mature organizations address complexity challenges by being 45% more likely to extensively invest in data-centric technologies to improve operational efficiency.
Mature organizations also invest heavily to protect analytics data. Stage 3 organizations are more rigorous in their protection of data analytics and use more data protection tools and technologies. This can be seen as a way of treating more analytics data as part of business-critical workloads.
If your organization is already making mature analytics investments, you may have gained benefits similar to those identified in the study. You can read the full report to learn more about the compelling business advantages gained from analytics maturity. If you’re looking to advance your organization’s analytics maturity, it’s not too late. Hear more about the impact of advancing analytics maturity and discover more insights. Watch the webinar with experts from ESG and Pure.
