New research from analytic database firm, Exasol, finds:
- Almost 40 per cent of FSI businesses are currently failing to implement data initiatives due to lack of employee skills
- Yet, 75 per cent of FSI businesses state that operations and decision making would be severely disrupted on a day-to-day basis if they did not have access to data
- More than 1 in 3 FSI businesses are not confident they know where their critical data is stored
- Almost a third of FSI organisations state that GDPR initiatives have failed
New research from analytic database firm Exasol has found that almost 40 per cent of businesses in the financial services industry (FSI) are currently failing to implement data initiatives due to a lack of employee skills. The research asked enterprises about the importance of data to their business, the strategies they are looking to implement in future, and the barriers to achieving their goals for data and analytics.
The findings of Exasol’s research highlighted the importance of data to financial businesses, and the impact it has on the day-to-day activities at an organisation.
- Three quarters of FSI businesses stated that operations and decision making would be severely disrupted on a day-to-day basis if they did not have access to data.
- Moreover, 88 per cent of FSI businesses said they have a strategy to reposition data analytics at the heart of their business within the next three years.
However, there are worrying signs for progress and development of data-driven initiatives in the FSI sector. Despite the importance of data to financial organisations, and their ambitions for analytics, organisations are struggling with data quality and location:
- 46 per cent stated they are struggling with poor data quality
- 32 per cent stated they are struggling with siloed data
- Over one third of businesses are not confident that they know where all their critical data is located – a breach of GDPR
The issue with data location may explain why GDPR is one of the key data initiatives that has failed for almost a third of organisations. In fact, only 29 per cent of businesses said that they had not had any failed data-driven initiatives in the organisation.
Sam Sibley, Strategic Partners & Alliances Manager at Exasol, commented: “It is positive to see that so many FSI businesses have plans in place to put data analytics at the heart of their organisation. Analytics has become a mission critical part of the financial sector’s strategy. However, our research found businesses are being hindered and are unable to implement their data strategies because of data quality and skills.
Sibley continued: “It’s also troubling to see many are unaware of where their critical data resides and have struggled with GDPR initiatives. Compliance is a big issue that comes with crippling penalties. This research emphasises the importance for financial businesses to bring in the right technology to help with aggregating and analysing the data, as well as the right people who have the skills needed to get the most from their data and enable these data initiatives to succeed.”
Exasol’s research was conducted by survey house Vanson Bourne on 500 IT and business decision makers, from enterprises in Germany and the UK.
