Bangkok--21 Nov--Aziam Burson-Marsteller
ASEAN Companies Make Strides in Adoption of Analytics but Struggle to Integrate Data across the Enterprise, Accenture Research Finds
Only 21 % of Thai businesses are satisfied with business outcomes driven by investing in analytics
An overwhelming majority of ASEAN business leaders (96 percent) are committed to the adoption of analytics or fact-based decision-making, surpassing their counterparts in the United Kingdom (86 percent) and the United States (85 percent), according to new research from Accenture (NYSE: ACN). However, 89 percent of ASEAN companies indicated that analytics is not yet deeply ingrained into the fabric of most companies as an integrated, enterprise-wide approach.
Analytics is an increasingly valuable source for differentiating products and services, and while most of the ASEAN respondents (80 percent) believe their data is unique compared to their competitors, 73 percent cite data integration as a key challenge, while more than half struggle with identifying the outcomes required from data (67 percent). Furthermore, the analytics efforts are often uncoordinated and stay within one business unit rather than spanning enterprise-wide. They also do not expect much change in the situation over the next year.
“Effective analytics programmes are built on three key success factors,” said Nontawat Poomchusri, Country Managing Director, Accenture in Thailand. “The first is to establish top management commitment and disciplined processes that ensure valuable insights and clear recommendations are being generated, acted on, and measured for effectiveness. Next, companies should use a ‘build, buy and partner’ strategy to source skills, given the supply constraints. Finally, they must apply technology that ensures data integrity, quality and accessibility.”
ASEAN organisations are integrating analytics into the decision-making process in functional areas, with predominance in growth-focused operations such as the evaluation of new market opportunities (89 percent) and the development of new products and services (87 percent).
The Analytics Capacity Gap
In view of the shortages in supply of analytics professionals, a majority of ASEAN companies are solving the immediate challenges by retaining managed services (68 percent), as well as by investing in tools and software (66 percent).
At the same time, ASEAN leaders are also ramping up their internal teams as another way of filling the analytics capabilities gap. For roughly two-thirds (62 percent) of ASEAN firms, there is already a designated person, such as a chief data officer, responsible for data management strategy. Even among companies that did not make such an executive appointment, they expect to do so in the near future.
“As simple as it may sound, having the right people, focused on the right set of problems, is one of the most important components of an effective analytical capability,” said Nontawat. “The biggest talent imperative for ASEAN companies is to establish a future-oriented sourcing strategy and structure for accessing scarce skills. Increasingly, this sourcing strategy will have to include the ability to scour the globe for the necessary talent and integrating them into the organisation.”
Achieving a Return on the Analytics Investment
Even though ASEAN companies regard the overall quality of their data as quite good, data collection and integration remain among the top challenges facing them. Deriving outcomes from data is also problematic; 67 percent of ASEAN companies cited this as a key challenge. Establishing the linkage between data collection and analysis, and then driving actions and outcomes from them, is proving to be a difficult task for many.
According to Accenture, getting the full return on investments in analytics is a journey that leads from issues, to insight, to decisions, to action and ultimately to visible and measurable outcome. Leading companies are creating a virtuous feedback loop that allows them to collect data, analyse the data, harvest insights, make decisions and then respond with agility.
Thailand-specific Findings
? Along with their ASEAN counterparts, business leadership in Thailand is demonstrating a strong commitment to analytics. 77 percent described senior management as totally or highly committed to analytics and a majority of respondents said that senior management has demonstrated its commitment by establishing formal data collection and sharing protocols (83percent). Additionally, 63 percent said leadership has appointed ‘chief data officers’ or someone responsible for data management strategy.
? Thailand companies are mostly using analytics to drive decision-making in growth-focused areas, by using analytics to a moderate or great extent in new market entry (88 percent) and using analytics to a moderate or great extent in new product development (85 percent).
? In Thailand, the focus still tends to be at a tactical rather than strategic level. Only 14 percent claim to routinely and successfully use analytics as an integrated, enterprise-wide approach and more than one in five say that there are instances of effective analytics but its uncoordinated and piecemeal (22 percent).
? For Thailand companies, achieving analytics ROI remains elusive. Only 21 percent of companies are “very satisfied” with the outcomes they’ve realized and 71 percent cite outcome from data as a key analytics challenge.
About the Research
The research, titled “Analytics in Action. Breakthroughs and Barriers on the Journey to ROI,” was based on telephone interviews with 1,000 executives at 1,000 private-sector and public-sector organisations with more than 1,000 employees in the United States (300), the United Kingdom (300) and ASEAN (400). Participants included directors and key decision makers across a wide range of industries (e.g. public sector, financial services, resources, communications and high tech, and retail and manufacturing) and business functions (e.g. sales and marketing, customer relationship management, human resources and finance). Interviews with the US and UK respondents were conducted in August and September 2012. The interviews with the five ASEAN countries were conducted in July 2013. Please access Accenture.com/ASEANanalytics for an infographic of research findings.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 275,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.