MIT Sloan Management Review research shows "analytically mature" companies drive stronger customer engagement

The new report, "Using Analytics to Improve Customer Engagement," sponsored by SAS, is based on results from a global survey of more than 1,900 business executives and personal interviews with more than a dozen senior managers. In addition to using analytics to improve customer engagement, the survey also finds that analytical innovators take advantage of multiple data sources to glean new customer insights and deepen their relationships. Among what the survey categorized as "analytically challenged" organizations, 75% tap at least one external data source to inform their models. On the other hand, "analytical innovators" are almost five times as likely to use data from all four of these external sources: customers, vendors, competitors, and public sources.

In other findings, companies continue to struggle to extract actionable insights from the mushrooming data storehouse. Notably, the gap between more access to useful data and the ability to develop practicable insights has doubled, from 14% in 2012 to 28% in 2017. Only 49% of respondents in 2017 reported being able to use data to guide future strategy, compared with 55% in 2016.

The study also highlights some enduring data and analytics challenges for companies:

• Striking the balance in data-human partnerships. Humans still have an important role to play in delivering the fruits of automation and analytics to both customers and employees. Striking the right balance between humans and machines continues to prove immensely challenging.
• Leadership and culture. Promoting robust analytics activities can challenge long-standing norms and practices. For many companies, it is the cultural piece that will be the biggest obstacle to success, not the technology aspects.
• Organizing for analytics. Traditional structures and silos within an organization, while necessary for fostering deep expertise, can be an impediment to enterprise-wide coordination. One task for leaders is to identify data bottlenecks within the organization and support cross-functional data sharing.
• Tricky metrics. As more corners of an organization embrace analytics, it's important to carefully define measurement practices.
• Data quality. A perennial pitfall is ensuring the integrity of the data companies are collecting and analyzing. Companies successful with analytics understand the critical nature of data cleansing and invest accordingly.

Please visit MIT Sloan Management Review to read the full report.

About MIT Sloan Management Review 
A media company based at the MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan Management Review's mission is to lead the conversation among research scholars, business executives, and other thought leaders about advances in management practice that are transforming how people lead and innovate. MIT Sloan Management Review captures for thoughtful managers the creativity, excitement, and opportunity generated by rapid organizational, technological, and societal change.

About SAS
SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative analytics, business intelligence, and data management software and services, SAS helps customers at more than 83,000 sites make better decisions faster. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.

To join the conversation on the study, follow @mitsmr or @SASanalytics on Twitter, or join our groups on LinkedIn at SAS and MIT SMR.

Contacts:

Casey Novak
SAS
919-531-2670
[email protected]

Deborah Gallagher
MIT Sloan Management Review
617-253-3967
[email protected]

SOURCE MIT Sloan Management Review

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