SAP Study Reveals Key Data Challenges and Opportunities in Enterprise Data Landscapes

SAP SE released research findings showing that businesses leaders believe that fragmented, siloed information technology environments were stymieing their ability to make informed business decisions.

Nearly three quarters, or 74 percent, of survey respondents said their data landscape is so complex that it limits agility, and 86 percent said they were not getting the most out of their data.

“We view consolidated and streamlined data as the next great enterprise asset,” said Greg McStravick, president, Database and Data Management, SAP. “Our study findings show that like natural energy resources, data resources are just beneath the surface, in places that are either inaccessible or invisible. If data is the new gold, then we aim to make data scientists the new gold miners. We support all business stakeholders tasked with taming and deriving value from their enterprise’s data to help make vital business decisions.”

“Data 2020: State of Big Data” examined a wide variety of issues associated with enterprise data and found an enterprise data management landscape ripe with opportunity, yet challenged to manage across job functions, departments and geographies. The results of the study point to complexities in data management that can be solved by analytics solutions that add value and data scientists who can make sense of the staggering amounts of information that enterprises collect.

• Siloed, inaccessible and unhealthy data: 50 percent of respondents believe that data is inaccessible to a wide variety of business stakeholders, and 79 percent said their company’s data needs more than just a checkup to make it healthy.
• Analytics driving data-driven enterprises: Analytics ranked as the most important technology in the enterprise, closely followed by the Internet of Things, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Data scientists on high demand: While 79 percent of respondents said that data scientists are important to ensure a company’s success, yet only 53 percent currently have data scientists employed. In such a high-demand field, 78 percent are concerned about a shortage of data scientists and people with the right skills to successfully work with data in the future.

In related news, SAP announced the SAP Data Hub solution to create value across diverse data landscapes through data integration, data orchestration and data governance, as well as by creating powerful data pipelines that can accelerate positive business results.

“Data 2020: State of Big Data” was supported by Regina Coroso Consulting and based on global survey results from more than 500 IT decision makers from enterprise-level companies. Countries surveyed include the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, China and Australia.

For more information on SAP Data Hub, visit www.sap.com/datahub.