Oracle announced the results of its report, From Overload to Impact: An Industry Scorecard on Big Data Business Challenges, which surveyed 333 C-level executives from US and Canadian enterprises spanning 11 industries to determine the pain points they face regarding managing the deluge of data coming into their organizations and how well they are using that information to drive profit and growth.

The data deluge is here: Ninety-four percent of C-level executives say their organization is collecting and managing more business information today than two years ago, by an average of 86 percent more.

Respondents note they see the biggest data growth areas coming from customer information (48 percent), operations (34 percent) and sales and marketing (33 percent).

Room for improvement: Executives say they are not prepared to handle the increasing amount of data they face. Twenty-nine percent of executives give their organization a “D” or “F” in preparedness to manage the data deluge, and 93 percent believe their organization is losing revenue opportunities – representing on average, 14 percent of revenue – by not being able to fully leverage the information they collect.

On average, private-sector organizations with revenues of $1 billion or more say they are losing approximately 13 percent of their annual revenue as a result of not being able to fully leverage their information. That translates to $130 million each year for a $1 billion organization. Only 8 percent of executives give their organization an “A” in preparedness.

Managers do not have or cannot get to the timely info they need: Respondents note they are frustrated with their organizations’ data gathering and distribution systems. Specifically, 38 percent note they do not have the right systems in place to gather the information they need, 36 percent cannot give their business managers access to pertinent information and need to rely on IT to compile and analyze information and 29 percent feel they are using systems that are not designed to meet the unique needs of their industry.

Setting a path forward: Ninety-seven percent of respondents note their organization must improve information optimization over the next two years. Top priorities include improving the ability to translate information into actionable insight (43 percent), acquiring tools to collect more accurate information (38 percent) and training employees to better make sense of information (38 percent).

Vertical application leap: Seventy-seven percent of organizations use industry-specific applications or software to help leverage information to make strategic decisions. The financial services (91 percent) and healthcare (87 percent) industries are most likely to use industry-specific applications.

Intelligence is a top priority: Sixty-seven percent of executives say that the ability to draw intelligence from their data is a top organizational priority.
Industry Findings

Leading the pack: Executives in the communications industry are most confident in their organizations’ preparedness for the data deluge, with 20 percent giving their organization an “A” rating. The communications, manufacturing and retail industries lose the lowest estimated percentage of additional annual revenue because of their current data management processes – 10 percent.

Flooded with data: Executives in the public sector, healthcare and utilities industries are least prepared to handle the data deluge – with 41 percent of public sector executives, 40 percent of healthcare executives and 39 percent of utilities executives giving themselves a “D” or “F” preparedness rating. The oil and gas (22 percent) and life sciences (20 percent) industries lose the greatest estimated percentage of annual revenue due to their current data management processes.

“This study shows that up to 14 percent of a company’s revenue is lost because enterprises are challenged to manage and analyze data, which grows exponentially as we speak. Enterprises can get ahead of the game by using these challenges as catalysts for company-wide strategic change. Through industry-specific applications and technologies, enterprises can transform data into measurable business benefits,” said Oracle President Mark Hurd.