83% of IT Leaders are Not Fully Satisfied with their Data Warehousing Initiatives, According to New Research from SnapLogic

New research published by SnapLogic, provider of the Intelligent Integration Platform, reveals that 83% of organizations are not fully satisfied with the performance and output of their data management and data warehousing initiatives. IT leaders cite a growing number of disconnected applications and data sources, outdated legacy systems, and slow and manual data movement as reasons for their frustration, all of which are stalling progress and costing them millions.

The new study, conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne, found that the average organization has 115 distinct applications and data sources across their enterprise, but almost half of them (49%) are siloed and disconnected from one another. Respondents expressed clear concern, with 89% of IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) from organizations where these apps and systems aren’t integrated worried that these data silos are holding them back. Indeed, ITDMs confirmed they are losing, on average, more than $1 million USD annually due to poor data management.

Still, organizations are committed to building a data-driven enterprise and are funding their data management initiatives accordingly. Over three quarters (76%) of survey respondents indicated that their companies have increased their data budgets over the past year.

Delivering on the Promise

ITDMs are investing in data storage solutions such as data warehouses and data lakes to help them make the most of their valuable data assets and deliver on the promise of agile analytics and actionable business insights. With this data, respondents hope to achieve faster and more informed decision making (70%), an improvement in business operations (64%), accelerated innovation and new business development (63%), an enhanced customer experience (61%), and a more efficient and productive workforce (57%). However, the process of getting data into a data warehouse or data lake is not always straightforward, all too often inhibiting progress and success.

Key research findings:

  • Nearly nine in ten (88%) ITDMs experience challenges trying to load data into data warehouses, with the biggest inhibitors being legacy technology (49%), complex data types and formats (44%), data silos (40%), and data access issues tied to regulatory requirements (40%).
  • Nearly half (48%) of the data migrated into organizations’ data warehouses or other storage solutions requires cleaning before it can be useful. This likely contributes to the more than 4 hours of time lost, on average per employee per week, resolving issues around missing data, duplicate data, or data that needs to be reformatted.
  • ITDMs indicated that, on average, 42% of their data management and warehousing processes that could be automated are currently being done manually, taking up valuable time, resources, and money.
  • As a result of these issues, almost all respondents (93%) believe improvements are needed in how they collect, manage, store, and analyze data.

“We are not only in a period of exponential data growth, but also one in which data lies at the heart of the successful adoption of technologies such as AI, automation, and advanced analytics,” said Craig Stewart, CTO at SnapLogic. “This means that having an effective data management and warehousing strategy is business-critical. To get data warehousing right, organizations must break down data silos, retire legacy tools, automate manual processes, and accelerate the integration and movement of data across the enterprise. Only then can teams across the business truly harness the full power of data to drive better decisions, actions, and outcomes.”

SnapLogic’s Intelligent Integration Platform uses AI-powered workflows to automate all stages of IT integration projects – design, development, deployment, and maintenance – whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments. The platform’s easy-to-use, self-service interface enables both expert and citizen integrators to manage all application integration, data integration, API management, B2B integration, and data engineering projects on a single, scalable platform. With SnapLogic, organizations can connect all of their enterprise systems quickly and easily to automate business processes, accelerate analytics, and drive transformation.

About the Research

The research was conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne in May 2020 on behalf of SnapLogic. A total of 500 IT decision makers participated in the study, representing medium and large organizations across the United States and the United Kingdom.

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