State of Analytics

The State of Analytics Study2018The Nordics are perceived as a European forerunner in the adoption of new marketing technologies and advanced analytics. This survey is a step towards a better understanding of the present status of Nordic enterprises on the path to digital transformation.

As companies are embracing the opportunities of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, data and analytics have become a paramount strategic issue for enterprises. Analytics spending has become the biggest single item in the 2017 US marketing budgets.1

We are seeing the emergence of the digitally transformed, data-centric enterprise where:

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By 2021, 70% of digital advertising and marketing will be data-driven, augmented or automated using AI and machine learning By 2020, 60% of B2B CMOs will be accountable for customer-oriented metrics such as those for loyalty, advocacy, and quality. These will take their place alongside revenue-related metrics.By 2021, at least 15% of Businesses' standard customer experience decisions will be handled by algorithms, as companies shift from person-to-person (P2P) to machine-to-person (M2P) engagement and transaction.2

At the core of this transformation is data-centricity and a dramatic upgrade of enterprise-analytic capabilities.

The study was conducted by Avaus Marketing Innovations, a leading data driven marketing agency, together with ISS, a leading marketing research company. We asked Swedish and Finnish CMO’s, CTO’s and COO’s to assess the state of data and analytics in their companies, in four major areas:

Investments

People, Processes and Leadership

Tools and Technologies

1 Strategy and Business Objectives 3

2 4

1 Gartner - CMO Spend Survey2017-20182 IDC - 10 CMO Predictions 2018

Executive Summary: Data and Analytics Boost Revenue in 63% of Forerunner Companies

Strategy and Business Objectives – Forerunners boost revenue-

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Forerunners experience a significant boost of revenues/profits (63%) as a result of analytics initiatives, compared to followers (50%)Data and analytics are considered to be a driver for competitive advantage at a majority (57%) of all surveyed companies More forerunners (43%) consider themselves being ahead of their competitors, than followers (34%)Only 50% of forerunners and 44% of followers use data and analytics to manage customerjourneys

Investments – Tools and Technologies First- Forerunners, are investing significantly more in analytics than followers:

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63% estimated higher investment in tools and technologies, while only 37% of followersdid43% estimated higher investment this year in competencies/people than previously against 37% of followers

- Significantly, the majority of all respondents, including forerunners, were not able to justify/validate marketing budgets with analytics

People Processes and Leadership – Prioritisation Main Hurdle-

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Lack of analytics prioritisation by management is the main hurdle for analytics leverage. Critical analytics related skills and supporting processes follow suit.There is a strong prevalent trend from in-house resources, towards engagement of external analytics partners. The main focus for analytics is customer insights and data management and technologies. Digital service (web, mobile) analytics are important, but not at the top of the priority list.

Tools and Technologies – The C-Suite Needs to do theirHomework- The C-suite is not familiar with the analytics tool their firms use. Roughly half of respondents were able to name

the tools in use in their company. Open source tools and technologies are gaining ground in theenterprise.

A forerunner group comprising 15% of all participating companies, were compared to a majority group of 85% of follower companies.The aim was to emphasise the distance in analytics leverage between the best-of-breed companies and the rest.

Strategy and ObjectivesData and Analytics are a CompetitiveAdvantage

State of Analytics

D&A - a competitive advantage for us

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 (respondents)

3%

20%

39%

31%

6%

3%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 (respondents)

Our D&A capabilities are ahead of competitors

11%

30%

42%

15%

57%

37%

Agree

Fully disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Fully agree

Agree

Fully disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Fully agree

Data and analytics are considered a driver for competitive advantage at 57% of companies. This is a low figure considering the emphasis on D&A in the present businessdiscussion.

A minority of 37% of the companies considered themselves ahead of their competition in data utilisation.

Surprisingly, many companies think they are ahead of their competitors, considering that only 15% ofcompanies qualify as forerunners.

Source: State of Analytics, Avaus2018

Download the full study here:

www.avaus.fi/state-of-analytics/

State of Analytics