One in five businesses admit they’re out of step on data management

 One in five UK organisations rate their customer data “unusable” according to new figures released today from the Trust Economy survey. This signals a significant misallocation of resources in the process of collecting, interpreting and using data, according to GBG, the company behind the research.

When asked to rate the usability of their organisation’s data on a scale of 1-10, 19% of business decision makers stated five out of 10 or lower, suggesting that a large portion of the resources and effort invested into collecting consumer information is misaligned or wasted. The situation is further exacerbated by the fact one in 10 businesses say their biggest data challenge is lacking the technological sophistication to utilise it.

Richard Law, CEO of GBG, the leading identity data intelligence firm behind The Trust Economy, said: “Businesses aren’t adopting the right technologies or applications to best use the huge volume of data they receive daily, wasting investment at the collection and registration stage. In fact, half of businesses admit they collect data which is not used or useful. It’s a clear waste of resources, time, and customer trust.

“Big data is no longer a buzzword. Globally, we’re creating one quintillion – or one billion billion – bytes of data every day. Couple this with the fact businesses haven’t resourced up to cope with it, it’s no wonder many are light-headed at the idea of making sense of this explosion to innovate and grow.”

Law said losing market share at the hand of disruptors taking new approaches and sidestepping traditional processes, is a very real threat already being realised in some sectors.

“Numerous industries have been shaken up by newcomers who are agile and efficient in their use of data sources. With less reliance on traditional data, peer-to-peer lenders and other Fintech businesses models are disrupting the finance industry, and a sharing economy which may rely, for instance, on reputation rather than a traditional credit score, will seriously shake up tourism and retail. It’s all about the technology, skills and processes you apply to data.”

Technological shortcomings, a shortage of analytical skills, and simple accuracy were other obstacles cited by businesses. Only 17% of businesses said they had no data challenges, and according to Law, addressing issues head on is the key to a strong return on investment.

“Good data hygiene is one way to immediately see business benefit, as storing inaccurate or out-of-date data adds further costs and time when used within business-critical applications. Our own experience demonstrates that accurate, ‘clean’ data can directly lead to a 22% increase in customers,” said Law.

“We are at risk of losing control of an already immense beast that is of huge value to the digital economy. It’s only going to get bigger, so now is the time to address what needs to be done – there’s no point in waiting until tomorrow to identify the best way to collect, interpret and use information. The disrupters are already working out how to do it.

“Consumers own their personal information and have rightly placed a bounty on the billions of bytes they create every day. Trust is hard won and easily lost, so we need to ensure the right skills, technology and applications are utilised to make the best use of the data shared.”