2011 SAS Business Study

Report

February 10th, 2011

The purpose of this year’s Business Study was to compare and contrast where executives stand now in comparison to 2010 with respect to issues affecting their business, their use and understanding of business analytics tools and software and the extent to which these tools can help them and their business.

INSTRUMENT

The survey was completed on-line from January 6th, 2011 to January 27th, 2011 using Leger Marketing’s online panel, LegerWeb, with a sample of 1000 Canadian executives (senior management level or higher) from mid-sized (50-500 employees) and large (more than 500 employees) organizations.

 

A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.

ONLINE PANEL

Leger Marketing’s online panel has approximately 360,000 members nationally – with between 10,000 and 20,000 new members added each month, and has a retention rate of 90%.

Panel members are randomly selected to receive email invitations to the individual surveys.

We ensure the protection of privacy via the usage of unique URLs and respondent IDs in combination

with survey IDs.

QUALITY CONTROL

Stringent quality assurance measures allow Leger Marketing to achieve the high-quality standards set by the company. As a result, its methods of data collection and storage outperform the norms set by WAPOR (The World Association for Public Opinion Research). These measures are applied at every stage of the project: from data collection to processing, through to analysis. We aim to answer our clients’ needs with honesty, total confidentiality, and integrity.

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Competitive Advantage & Business Issues

Canadian executives continue to get their competitive advantage from their quality products and say that a lack of resources is what comes in the way of them improving the use of information and data for competitive advantage.

Business Decisions

9 in 10 business executives agree it is important to have access to data because it enables them to make better informed decisions, however, 1 in 3 would say their IT department is not able to support their information needs which can attribute to the majority believing that data is the most under utilized asset in their company.

8 in 10 business executives believe the information about their department/business is not always on time, easy to understand or accurate.

4 in 5 executives feel they would make better informed business decisions if the had the right tools in place and operate smarter with business analytics tools.

Business Analytics/Analytic Information

Most executives feel their company needs business analytics & analytic tools and believe their staff could share information more effectively.

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2011 vs. 2010 Comparison

More view government regulations as a business issue for their organization this year.

Fewer agree their company has the right data and information to make effective business decisions on their business performance.

More executives this year than last disagree that their company does not need business analytics tools suggesting an openness towards obtaining more business analytics tools.

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To download the full report click here.

For more information, please contact: Suzanne Sprajcar 416-307-4634/ suzanne.sprajcar@sas.com