State of Analytics Report Salesforce
State of Analytics Report Salesforce
State of
Analytics
Insights on analytics trends from
more than 2,000 business
leaders worldwide
Table of Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction: Analytics Growth and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Analytics Jumps to the Forefront of Business Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Analytics Use Cases Expand Dramatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Era of Real-Time Analytics Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
High Performers Embrace a Culture of Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Whats Next: Unlocking Analytics Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Last Look: The Path to Becoming an Analytics High Performer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Executive Summary
01
02
Executive Summary
Four key takeaways
03
04
27
25
20
15
15
10
7
10
2010
2015
High Performers
Moderate Performers
2020
Underperformers
This shift in data analysis levels going forward begs the simple question: why?
To answer that, we look first at the biggest analytics pain points facing businesses today,
on the next page.
This chart shows the top 10. For a complete list, please see the Appendix.
53%
53%
52%
50%
49%
48%
47%
47%
47%
47%
01
High Performers
55%
35%
7% 3%
Moderate Performers
20%
56%
22%
3%
Underperformers
7%
35%
Absolutely critical
Very important
Moderately important
Not very/not at all important
47%
11%
01
High Performers
23%
23%
29%
19%
6%
Moderate Performers
5%
21%
41%
27%
5%
Underperformers
4% 7%
29%
51%
52%
7%
35%
People
35%
Training
01
10
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
13%
20%
4.6x
More likely to use data
to drive business decisions
30%
%
40
60%
50%
High Performers
30%
10
02
Facilitating growth
Optimizing operational processes
Improving existing products, services, and features
This chart shows the top 10. For a complete list, please see the Appendix.
37%
37%
35%
35%
33%
33%
33%
32%
31%
31%
11
02
Emails
39%
Research data
37%
Transactional data
17
Moderate Performers
36%
Commercialized data
35%
Log data
15
Underperformers
33%
32%
Event-driven data
10
Partner data
31%
30%
29%
12
02
S P OT L I G H T
74%
19x
54%
Sales
Sales
As reported in the 2015 State of Sales research, 74% of sales leaders are using or will be using sales analytics in the next 18
months. High-performing sales teams are 3.5x more likely than underperformers to be currently using sales analytics. The full
report is available at salesforce.com/stateofsales.
Service
Service
High-performing service teams are 19x more likely than underperformers to be outstanding at using analytics and insights. Further
insights on the customer service industry can be found in the 2015 State of Service report, available at salesforce.com/stateofservice.
Marketing
Marketing
As revealed in the 2015 State of Marketing report, available at salesforce.com/stateofmarketing, 54% of marketers say marketing
analytics is absolutely critical or very important to creating a cohesive customer journey. Email is the number one most analyzed
data type among business leaders, with 41% saying their company is currently analyzing email data. For more on types of data
analyzed, see page 12.
13
High performers are 5.1x more able than underperformers to glean timely business
insights from their current analytics tools. Here we see the percentage of business leaders
who strongly agree with this statement, divided by performance level.
High Performers
10
0%
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
11%
20%
5.1x
More able to glean timely
business insights from their
current analytics tools
30%
%
40
59%
50%
03
30%
14
High performers are 3.5x more likely than underperformers to extensively use mobile
reporting tools to analyze data wherever they are.
High Performers
10
0%
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
16%
3.5x
More likely to be
extensively using
mobile reporting
tools to analyze data
20%
30%
35%
%
40
55%
50%
03
15
04
High Performers
90%
8% 2%
Moderate Performers
82%
15%
3%
Underperformers
44%
Completely/mostly committed
Somewhat committed
Not very/not at all committed
44%
12%
16
High Performers
10
0%
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
20%
2x
21%
26%
30%
41%
%
40
50%
04
17
04
10
High Performers
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
4%
12%
20%
15.5x
30%
64%
50%
%
40
60
0%
18
04
S P OT L I G H T
Many factors go into the decision about which analytics tool to use, but the value
of timely tools packs the biggest punch. Speed of deployment, ease of use, selfservice, and mobile capabilities all add up to faster answers from analytics tools.
68%
Speed/ease of deployment
65%
61%
Cloud deployment
56%
54%
19
0%
High performers are 5.3x more likely than underperformers to believe analyzing
unstructured data will be key to unlocking deep insights into customer behavior. Here we
see the percentage of business leaders who strongly agree that analyzing unstructured
data will be key to unlocking deep customer behavior insights.
10
High Performers
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
12%
20%
5.3x
More likely to believe
analyzing unstructured
data is key to unlocking
deep insights into
customer behavior
28%
30%
61%
%
%
40
50%
60
20
21
59%
High Performers
37%
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
16%
58%
High Performers
35%
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
15%
22
Manual processes top the charts for the analytics pain points. Challenges around analytics for todays business users often
involve time constraints and a lack of automation.
53%
53%
52%
50%
49%
48%
47%
47%
47%
47%
45%
45%
43%
42%
41%
23
Analytics adds value to a wide range of business disciplines. Here we see the full list of use cases for analytics today.
37%
37%
Facilitating growth
35%
35%
33%
33%
33%
32%
31%
31%
30%
30%
28%
28%
27%
26%
25%
25%
24
Data security and privacy remain a top priority. Here we see the top priorities for analytics across an organization, divided by
performance level.
High Performers
36%
29%
29%
Moderate Performers
Data security and privacy
Data governance
30%
27%
26%
Underperformers
Budgetary contraints/high cost of deployment (e.g.,
subscriptions, manpower, hardware, software, support)
25%
24%
24%
25
26
Tools and tech take the lions share of analytics budget. Here we see the breakdown of analytics spending, split by
performance level.
High Performers
Moderate Performers
59%
42%
38%
36%
34%
Underperformers
56%
43%
Training
41%
People
37%
Data governance
Third-party data
29%
42%
29%
Training
People
Data governance
Third-party data
26%
24%
16%
High performers are more likely to make decisions empirically. Here we see how business leaders describe their
organizations decision-making process, divided by performance level.
Empirical: Develop hypotheses and then experiment and observe the outcomes before making a decision
High Performers
46%
43%
4% 7%
Moderate Performers
57%
21%
9%
12%
Underperformers
49%
18%
20%
13%
SMB companies are more likely to make decisions based on intuition. Here we see how business leaders describe their
organizations decision-making process, divided by company size.
Empirical: Develop hypotheses and then experiment and observe the outcomes before making a decision
SMB
43%
19%
24%
14%
MID
58%
23%
9%
11%
ENT
53%
30%
7%
10%
High performers are 5.5x more likely than underperformers to say the importance of analytics will increase
substantially in the next two years. Heres how the role of analytics will change for organizations at each performance level in
the next two years.
High Performers
36%
49%
14%
2%
Moderate Performers
55%
22%
21%
3%
Underperformers
9%
38%
47%
5%
Decrease
27
Analytics tools are heavily used to drive operational efficiencies. Heres how business leaders are deriving value from
analytics tools.
37%
37%
Facilitating growth
35%
35%
33%
Top teams use analytics to facilitate growth. Here are the top ways that business leaders at all performance levels are using
analytics tools to derive value.
High Performers
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
1. Facilitating growth
2. Improving existing products,
services, and features
3. Identifying new revenue streams
1. Facilitating growth
2. Monitoring customer loyalty
3. Driving operational efficiencies
28
29
High performers are 3x more likely to be deriving value from analytics in more than 10 different use cases. Here we see
the number of use cases through which business leaders are adding value to the business.
High Performers
24%
12%
28%
8 to 10 use cases
37%
5 to 7 use cases
Moderate Performers
18%
14%
26%
42%
Underperformers
9%
20%
63%
What types of data are high performers analyzing more than their peers? Here we see the types of data currently
analyzed by business leaders at all performance levels.
62%
59%
58%
56%
57%
53%
53%
54%
53%
51%
52%
54%
55%
High Performers
Moderate Performers
Underperformers
52%
52%
49%
48%
47%
45%
46%
Weather Data
Third-party data
Imaging data
Mobile apps
Partner data
Log data
Commercialized data
Transactional data
Research data
Emails
40%
42%
Wearables Data
8%
Data types most commonly analyzed. Business users are analyzing more and more different types of data from a wide variety
of sources.
41%
Emails
39%
Research data
37%
Transactional data
36%
Commercialized data
35%
Log data
33%
32%
Event-driven data
31%
30%
Partner data
29%
29%
29%
29%
Exernal feeds
29%
Mobile apps
Imaging data
28%
28%
27%
Geolocation data
24%
24%
Third-party data
22%
Beacon data
21%
Weather data
Wearables data
19%
30
High performers are 3.9x more likely to have over 80% of their companys data available for users to make decisions in
real time or near real time. Here we see the percentage of the companys data that business leaders say is available.
High Performers
1% to 19%
20% to 39%
8%
21%
23%
22%
25%
40% to 59%
60% to 79%
Moderate Performers
11%
80% or more
25%
28%
26%
9%
Underperformers
20%
27%
28%
18%
6%
31
32
Cross-device connectivity in analytics tools matters most to high performers. Here we see the percentage of business leaders
who rate capabilities as absolutely critical when selecting an analytics tools, split by performance level.
Flexible schema
Prebuilt templates/metrics/KPIs
Unstructured data storage and analysis
Robust dashboard capabilities
Dynamic visualization
Mobile capabilities to explore and share data
Cloud deployment
Advanced data visualization
Complex querying capabilities
Collaborative interface
Cross-device connectivity
Ease of use for business users
9%
9%
10%
50%
22%
50%
23%
26%
10%
24%
10%
25%
10%
25%
11%
26%
12%
10%
51%
24%
13%
16%
47%
50%
51%
49%
48%
24%
12%
49%
29%
29%
34%
54%
56%
51%
28%
16%
11%
25%
30%
13%
28%
12%
17%
28%
15%
27%
12%
26%
12%
11%
25%
15%
17%
12%
30%
32%
33%
32%
51%
50%
51%
55%
51%
54%
52%
51%
52%
49%
54%
52%
Enterprise companies have more employees actively using analytics tools. Here we see the percentage of employees who are
active users of analytics tools, split by company size.
SMB
24%
15%
28%
32%
MID
26%
24%
37%
13%
ENT
30%
22%
38%
11%
Underperformers struggle to provide adequate training and resources to analytics users. Sixty-five percent of
underperformers say that half their analytics users have inadequate training and resources. Here we see the percentage of analytics
users who have adequate training and resources to be successful, split by performance level.
High Performers
54%
21%
20%
6%
Moderate Performers
46%
22%
25%
7%
Underperformers
35%
21%
24%
19%
33
Technology and financial services companies lead the pack in analytics adoption across the broader organization. Thirty-six
percent of high-tech companies and 32% of financial services companies say at least half of their employee base uses analytics tools.
Agriculture & Mining
11%
34%
41%
14%
Automotive
30%
23%
27%
20%
20%
35%
23%
Education
24%
17%
33%
26%
Energy
25%
22%
45%
7%
24%
27%
23%
Financial Services
32%
24%
34%
10%
21%
35%
20%
High Tech
36%
22%
32%
11%
Manufacturing
16%
23%
43%
26%
22%
38%
17%
18%
35%
17%
Professional Services
24%
19%
39%
18%
Public Sector
29%
14%
30%
27%
34
Public sector organizations (54%) and technology companies (50%) lead the way in providing adequate training and
resources to their analytics users. Here we see the percentage of analytics users, by industry, who have adequate training and
resources to be successful.
Agriculture & Mining
32%
27%
36%
5%
Automotive
50%
22%
15%
13%
19%
27%
20%
Education
37%
19%
26%
19%
Energy
42%
35%
20%
4%
25%
18%
16%
Financial Services
47%
25%
23%
4%
21%
24%
14%
Technology
50%
22%
20%
9%
11%
34%
12%
Manufacturing
34%
28%
22%
16%
23%
26%
13%
Professional Services
45%
20%
25%
10%
Public Sector
54%
18%
21%
8%
35
36
High performers are 5.4x more likely than underperformers to primarily use analytics tools to gain strategic insights
from big data. Here we see the percentage of business leaders, split by performance level, strongly agreeing that their company
primarily uses analytics tools to gain strategic insights from big data.
76%
High Performers
35%
Moderate Performers
14%
Underperformers
Top teams excel at managing big data. High performers are 3.1x more likely than underperformers to be confident in their ability
to manage data from internal systems, customers, and third parties.
High Performers
83%
17%
Moderate Performers
51%
47%
2%
Underperformers
26%
62%
12%
Confident: My company excels at managing big data using a rigorous system of standards and data management practices to integrate data across the organization
Room for Improvement: My company does an average job of managing big data, but could employ more stringent standards and data management practices to integrate data across the organization
Overwhelmed: My company struggles to manage big data with few standards and data management practices that integrate data across the organization
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