How Much Information Available to Companies Is Used for Decision-Making?

How Much of the Information Available to Businesses Is Actually Used?

Our data shows that almost half of all business decisions made are based on gut feel rather than data. The primary reason for this is missing information. But even when all the relevant information is available, are companies making full use of it? We asked our research panel how much of the information available to them is used to support decision-making?

The results reveal that:

• On average, respondents believe that 50 percent of their organizations’ available data is used for decision-making.
• The mean value for large companies is only 40 percent of information used.
• Laggards use an average of just 30 percent of their data to support decision-making, substantially less than their competitors.

Given that only half of all decisions are based on information and only half the available data is being used to support decision-making, companies need to focus on unlocking the potential in their remaining data. To this end, companies should home in on these issues:

• Addressing and improving data quality;
• Lowering the cost of access to information;
• Improving the way in which information is presented;
• Making information easier to find; and
• Increasing the speed at which information is made available.