What you need to know about the new direct marketing guidance note
Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
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Incorrect analysis impacts on revenue
More than a third of global finance professionals surveyed by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) say incorrect analysis of organisational data is having a significant impact on revenue.
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The international survey of 2 000 Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) finance professionals, including those working at CEO and CFO level, reveals 86% of organisations are struggling to turn growing volumes of data into valuable insight and are suffering as a result. In addition, 44% of respondents said their organisation did not have the sufficient technology tools in place to understand new trends impacting their business and only 53% are investing in the capabilities to harness the benefits.
The top three reasons for organisations not introducing new or improved practices are the costs, the value not being understood and time availability. The findings are in stark contrast to the estimated impact of big data in the future, with 87% of respondents saying big data and better analytics will change the way business is done over the next ten years and those who do not harness the concept will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage (86%) by the end of the decade.
Main barriers
Respondents said the main barriers their organisation face when attempting to extract valuable insight from data are:
- Difficulties in bringing data together from different databases and silos (62%).
- Ensuring the business captures reliable, good quality data in the first place (51%).
- Extracting insight from non-financial data (46%).
- Ensuring insight gained from data is used to improve performance (43%).
- Identifying meaningful trends and insights in a mass of data (39%).
- Intelligent visualisation and reporting of data (34%).
"Big data is increasingly becoming a core business asset," says Samantha Louis, CIMA Africa regional director. "According to the survey, 93% of respondents agreed that finance has an essential role to play in helping organisations benefit from data-related projects. Finance professionals, especially CGMAs, are well placed to do this by helping organisations translate analytical insights into commercial insights to create value."
