BARC COVID Survey 21: Changed Priorities in Pandemic Times
BARC COVID Survey 21: Changed Priorities in Pandemic Times
BARC publishes its second COVID-19 study on the impact of the current crisis on data and analytics.
- The analyst firm BARC surveyed around 950 respondents in a global survey: the results of the study highlight the main issues of importance in the area of data and analytics during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
- The study reveals that business intelligence (BI) initiatives have increasedat the companies of 45% of respondents over the past 12 months.
- COVID-19 is proving to be an inadvertent driver of digitalization: in the post-pandemic period, companies expect the level of data-driven decision-making to increase by 24% on average.
BARC publishes the BARC COVID Survey 21, for which some 950 professionals were surveyed for the second time during the pandemic between March and May 2021 about the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the development of data and analytics in their companies. The results of the study show, among other things, that the crisis and the challenges it poses for companies means that topics that had previously been given lower priority have made a comeback. The study is available to download free of charge.
BI and cloud: the top topics in pandemic times
In the last twelve months, most investment has flowed into business intelligence initiatives. Dr. Carsten Bange, Founder and Managing Director of BARC and author of the study feels that the new importance of BI can be easily explained: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, the need for transparency has clearly been at the forefront. That’s because the world has faced, and continues to face, an unprecedented situation. At every turn, companies need to find out where they currently stand – what’s happening with supply chains, customers and employees.”
According to respondents, the need for BI will not abate in the next twelve months: 76% said they would like to further expand BI initiatives in their company.
Second in the list of investment priorities is the introduction of cloud applications. “That is less surprising,” said Bange. “With the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are being encouraged to work from home: The need to access data from anywhere has grown significantly as a result.”
Development of a “new normal”
The study also shows that the impact on business of the coronavirus crisis has not been entirely negative. Data-based decision-making in companies has been – and will be – significantly strengthened in the future. Survey participants have already seen an increase of 12% toward more data-driven decisions. After the pandemic, the projected figure is 24%. This makes the pandemic an inadvertent driver of digitalization.
Respondents indicated that measures to improve data quality would have been particularly helpful in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. This proves that there is a growing understanding of the importance of a solid data foundation and the need for investment in data management and data quality.
