Businesses using big data could add 216 billion to the UK in the next five years, according to research.
Some 20 per cent of large UK businesses are assigning financial value to their data on their company's balance sheet, helping their organisation's while also benefiting the UK, a study by business analytics software firm SAS found.
"Big data is the new 'corporate gold'," says Mark Wilkinson, UK managing director of SAS UK and Ireland. Of the CFOs surveyed, 44 per cent said good use of data can drive real business growth.
The company quoted a study by the Harvard Business Review that found nearly three quarters (73 per cent) of UK business leaders saw benefits from the use of analytics. These benefits included an increase in financial performance, cost reduction, and faster decision-making.
Despite the popularity among UK business leaders, big data is being run at a slow pace; 40 per cent of UK business leaders say that analytics are underused or being put away for another time. The data management strategies still lie within their IT department rather than it being spread throughout the business as a whole. The implementation of big data in businesses, however, is promising and working slowly but surely.
"Organisations that demonstrate their understanding of what we call data equity' by giving it value on the company balance sheet are already seeing dividends in terms of company performance and strategic decision making," Wilkinson added.
"It's time that business leaders embrace high-performance analytics more widely to unleash the true value of data and drive business innovation, creation and efficiency."
