Data: Businesses Just Aren’t Using it Well

The conundrum continues: Business leaders know they need to put their organizations’ data to use for improving productivity, customer satisfaction and so on, but they just aren’t doing it.

That’s according to a new report, Untapped Data Research, from Salesforce, released on Feb. 22.

The conversation around data has gone on for almost a decade. It’s not new. But apparently the ability to use one’s organization’s data to make better strategic decisions remains out of reach for a number of business leaders. Salesforce surveyed almost 10,000 of those professionals to reach its latest conclusions. The cloud-based customer relationship management behemoth says respondents aren’t using data for decisions or to navigate an uncertain economy because they can’t make sense of it.

Despite that, 80% of the people Salesforce surveyed said data is critical to the decisions their organizations make.

But more than two-thirds (67%) aren’t using data to adjust pricing amid inflation, or to choose new markets for product or service launches. Furthermore, 79% of respondents are not using data to inform their organizations’ diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Only 17% look to data to guide their climate-related choices.

Perhaps managed service providers and consultancies need to do more on the data front for customers?