More than three-quarters of companies are investing or planning to invest in big data in the next two years, a three percent increase over 2014, according to Gartner.
Organizations typically have multiple goals for big data initiatives, such as enhancing the customer experience, streamlining existing processes, achieving more targeted marketing and reducing costs. As in previous years, organizations are overwhelmingly targeting enhanced customer experience as the primary goal of big data projects (64 percent).
As data breaches continue to make headlines, enhanced security capabilities saw the largest increase, from 15 percent to 23 percent. "As big data becomes the new normal, information and analytics leaders are shifting focus from hype to finding value," said Lisa Kart, research director at Gartner.
When asked about ROI for big data efforts, the majority of those companies with plans to invest in big data and those that have invested, expect a positive ROI. However, a large proportion of companies (43 percent of those planning to invest and 38 percent of those that have already invested) don't know if their ROI will be positive or negative.
One of the more significant changes in this year's survey findings is the role within the organization that initiates big data projects.
Last year, 37 percent of big data projects were initiated by the CIO, while 25 percent were initiated by business unit heads. In 2015, the roles are nearly tied, at 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Business leaders are taking a more active role in information and analytics projects as awareness of the value of data-driven decision making grows.
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