A Forrester Consulting

Thought Leadership Paper

Commissioned By Dell EMC

October 2016

Leaders Approach BigData DifferentlyHow Leading Firms Are SucceedingWith Big Data

Table Of Contents

Executive Summary ...........................................................................................1

Big Data Immaturity Is A Competitive Disadvantage ....................................2

Leaders Go Beyond Technology .....................................................................3

Leadership Starts With Rethinking Big Data..................................................5

Key Recommendations .....................................................................................8

Appendix A: Methodology ................................................................................9

Appendix B: Supplemental Material ................................................................ 9

Appendix C: Demographics/Data...................................................................10

Appendix D: Endnotes.....................................................................................12

ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTINGForrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-basedconsulting to help leaders succeed in their organizations. Ranging in scope froma short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting servicesconnect you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to yourspecific business challenges. For more information, visitforrester.com/consulting.

© 2016, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject tochange. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impactare trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respectivecompanies. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com. [1-WES2QC]

Project Director: Andrew Magarie, Market Impact ConsultantContributing Research: Forrester's Enterprise Architecture research group

1

Executive Summary

Digital leaders today have taught us that the firms that excelat turning data into insights have an advantage. However,what exactly are they doing that makes them moresuccessful?

In February 2016, Dell EMC commissioned ForresterConsulting to examine this phenomenon and evaluate thedifferences between high-growth firms with mature big datastrategies and everybody else. The study specificallyexamined the role that IT leadership plays at leading firms.

We conducted an in-depth online survey with 408 businessand IT professionals responsible for big data and analyticsat their organization. By comparing mature and high-growthorganizations with lower-growth and less mature firms, wefound that leaders indeed do some things very differently,starting with taking a top-down, priority outcome-drivenapproach that starts with making tough organizationaldecisions.

KEY FINDINGS

Forrester’s study yielded five key findings:

› Big data immaturity is a competitive disadvantagetoday. Our survey shows that big data maturity correlatesto revenue growth. And firms that are immature in theirbig data and analytics strategy execution are not seeingthe customer experience, revenue, or product innovationbenefits that their more mature competitors are.

› The analytics vision comes from the business. Maturefirms tend to get their vision from the CEO, the board ofdirectors, digital leaders, and data science teams; lessmature firms tend to depend on CIOs to set the vision.The problem is that organizational issues can make itdifficult for IT to deliver.

› The right organizational structure and culture comesbefore the technology. Leaders are different in the waythey approach change. A culture that rewards innovationand allows for calculated risk is key to unlocking thepower of big data insights.

› Systems of insight and continuous optimizationcreate success. Leaders are not only better at turning bigdata into insights, but they are also more likely to test theoutcomes of their big data insights and continuously learnthrough experimentation. Forrester calls this closed loopbetween data, insight, and action a system of insight.

› IT plays a bigger role at successful organizations. Ourstudy revealed that successful organizations are morelikely to have strong IT involvement in their big datainitiatives. But this doesn’t mean IT should set the visionand be accountable for its execution. Leaders maximizethe value of IT by resolving complex organizational issuesso IT leaders across the board can deliver foundationalcapabilities.

Successful firms align their investments in bigdata analytics to the business outcomes thatgenerate the biggest advantage. Then theymake the tough organizational and processcalls, with a lot of help from IT, who oftenunderstands the data and the limits of thetechnology.

2

Big Data Immaturity Is A CompetitiveDisadvantage

There is no longer any doubt — firms that can act on insightfrom big data are rising to the top. For example, four of thefive biggest companies in the world have used big data todominate their industry. But are other firms in traditionalindustries really seeing benefits when they embrace someof the skills and technologies pioneered by thesedisruptors? If so, what are they doing differently?

Our analysis compared the responses of leading big datafirms with those of lagging firms, and we also compared theresponses of business and IT professionals. We found:

› Big data leaders were outperforming lagging firms.Our study found a strong correlation between firms thatsaid their big data strategy execution was “very mature”and overall company growth (see Figure 1).

› Business and IT pros look at big data differently. Forexample, 49% of IT respondents said their firm’s vision forbig data comes from the CIO, while only 34% of businessrespondents felt that way.1

By comparing the survey responses between these groups,we confirmed that big data immaturity has become acompetitive disadvantage. Our study found that immature,low-growth firms did not feel they were seeing the benefitsthat their mature, high-growth counterparts were.Specifically, very mature firms felt their investments were

helping them provide better customer experiences, drivingtop- and bottom-line growth and leading to more innovativeproducts and services (see Figure 2).

FIGURE 1Firms With Higher Revenue Growth Tend To HaveMore Mature Big Data And Analytics

Base: 71 very mature and 73 immature/no strategy big data decision-makers at companies with 100 to 4,999 employees(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting onbehalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“Please estimate your firm’s/organization’s averageyear-over-year revenue growth rate over

the past three years.”Immature/no strategyVery mature

Less than 5% 33%15%

5% to 14% 56%63%

15% or more 11%21%

FIGURE 2Immature Firms Miss Out On Significant RevenueGrowth, Innovation, And Customer Benefits

Base: 71 very mature and 73 immature/no strategy big data decision-makers at companies with 100 to 4,999 employees(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting onbehalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“Which of the following customer experience benefitshas your firm seen due to its investment in big

data analytics?” (Major tangible benefits)Immature/no strategyVery mature

Improved web ormobile experiences 22%

34%

Improved products 32%34%

Improved salessupport 27%

41%

Improved customersupport 27%

42%

Improved in-storeexperiences 23%

44%

Improved marketing 29%48%

“To what extent has big data and analyticsinvestment created topline revenue growth?”

Insignificant revenuebenefits seen 16%

1%

Some new revenueopportunities, but

measurable benefit hasbeen fairly small so far

63%15%

Significant improvementto our revenue targets 21%

83%

“To what extent has big data and analytics investmenthelped improve your firm’s bottom line through

efficiency and operational excellence?”

Insignificant bottom-line benefits seen 15%

1%

Some efficiencyimprovements, but

measurable benefit hasbeen fair small so far

67%28%

Significant improvementto our revenue bottom line 18%

70%

“To what extent has big data and analyticsinvestment led to the development of innovative

products and services?”

Insignificant improvementsto products and services 16%

4%

Some improvement to ourproducts and services 55%

28%

Significant improvements toour products or services or

significant new products created29%

68%

3

Leaders Go Beyond Technology

Our study confirmed what we expected: Leaders are betterat turning big data into insights. For example, 39% of ourleaders rated themselves as very good at discoveringinsights using advanced analytics versus only 11% of ourlagging firms. However, the differences we found deeper inthe data indicated leaders go beyond the technology.

LEADERS FOCUS ON ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

Leaders do not try to solve organizational problems withtechnology. They also tend to put an emphasis on solvingorganizational issues first or along with technologyimplementations. For example:

› Leaders emphasize cultural change. Very mature firmswere 19 percentage points more likely to place criticalpriority on cultural change versus their lagging

counterparts (see Figure 3). This difference in emphasismeans leaders are more likely to expend businessleadership capital and time on culture, whereas at laggingfirms, CIOs are driving big data through technology andstruggling with a business culture they cannot change.

› Leaders emphasize change management andorganizational structure. Leaders were 24 percentagepoints more likely to put critical priority on improvingbusiness change management and planning. They werealso 16 percentage points more likely to place criticalpriority on creating the right organizational structurecompared with lagging firms. This difference furtherreinforces our assessment that leaders are willing andable to do what it takes to drive success through cultureand organizational structure.

FIGURE 3Big Data Leaders Place Critical Importance On Culture And Organizational Structure

Base: 71 very mature and 73 immature/no strategy big data decision-makers at companies with 100 to 4,999 employeesSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“How important are the following business changes in order to ensure a successful big data project?”(Critical requirement)

Immature/no strategy

Very mature

Improving the business side of datastewardship and management 21%

25%

Improving the business side of advancedanalytics and data science 22%

27%

Changing management incentives 16%35%

Developing or acquiring the right business data skills 26%35%

Creating the right organizational structure 19%35%

Implementing governance, risk, and compliance policiesthat enable innovation and appropriate risk-taking 19%

37%

Changing our culture 19%38%

Improving business change programmanagement and planning 18%

42%

Developing or improving business innovation 25%42%

4

LEADERS CREATE SYSTEMS OF INSIGHT

Our study also revealed that leaders build solutionsdifferently by attacking the data-to-action problem withsystems of insight (see Figure 4).

Forrester defines systems of insight as:

The business discipline and technology to harnessinsights and consistently turn data into action.2

Key to systems of insight is that they are a closed loop anddriven by an insights team that applies Agile and DevOpspractices to data and analytics work. The team starts byunderstanding important business outcomes, measuringeverything, and experimenting to find insights that movebusiness needles. Next, they implement insights into coreprocesses that drive decisions, and they continuouslyoptimize using new data as it comes in.

In our study, Forrester tested respondents to see if leaderswere more likely to use a systems of insight approach. Wefound that the difference between leading and lagging firmswas stunning (see Figure 5). Specifically, leaders:

› Are more likely to test insights against businessoutcomes in software. Firms with very mature big datastrategies were 39 percentage points more likely to saythey test insights against business outcomes. This is theheart of a system of insight. If an insight doesn’t change abusiness outcome that matters, it is a waste of time. Ourstudy indicated that leaders get this.

› Continuously learn through experimentation. Firmswith very mature big data strategies were also 25percentage points more likely to say they were very goodat continuously learning through techniques like randomexperimentation and closed-loop systems. Businessintelligence is typically a one way path — from data toinsight to action. Systems of insight close the loop so youcan continuously learn and optimize.

FIGURE 5Big Data Leaders Are Better At Key Systems OfInsight Capabilities

Base: 71 very mature and 73 immature/no strategy big data decision-makers atcompanies with 100 to 4,999 employeesSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf ofDell EMC, March 2016

“Please rate your firm’s capabilities in performing thefollowing operations related to data and analytics.”

(Very good)Immature/no strategyVery mature

Instrumenting applications andproducts to measure the results

of insight-driven action 7%30%

Continuously learning throughtechniques like random

experimentation and closed-loop analytics processes

5%30%

Implementing analytics insightsin software systems to support

employee decisions 8%31%

Implementing analyticsinsights in software systems

to aid customers 8%32%

Managing and governing largeand diverse new data sets my

business needs for analytics 5%37%

Discovering insights in datausing advanced analytics

techniques and technologies 11%39%

Capturing or accessing allthe data my business

needs for analytics 7%44%

Testing analytics insightsagainst business outcomes to

select the most effective actions 5%44%

FIGURE 4Systems Of Insights Drive Business Actions WithPeople, Processes, And Technology

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

People:Insights teams

All possible actionsAll possible data

Insights-to-execution

Technology: Digitalinsights architecture

Rightdata

Effectiveactions

Process

5

Leadership Starts With RethinkingBig Data

Our study indicates that big data done right through systemsof insight is a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, lessthan one in five respondents said they were very mature intheir big data strategy execution. This is both a problem andan opportunity because big data technology has evolvedsignificantly in recent years. The question is, what should ITleaders do to help their organization get started?

To start, IT leaders should look to what the most mature,high-growth firms do:

› Prioritize agility and customer experience. Oursurvey’s business respondents ranked improvinginnovation as their top business priority, even higher thangrowing revenue.3 The business also prioritizes improvingcustomer experience and addressing customerexpectations more than IT does. To succeed, IT must

focus on delivering technology agility and focus that agilityon helping deliver digital or digitally enhanced, contextualcustomer engagements.

› Foster business innovation and risk-taking. Yourbusiness needs to try out a lot of things before it findswhat works, and data plays a key role. Leaders seem tounderstand this. Our study found that 42% of high-growthfirms allow their business to source data without involvingIT, and 40% give their business the ability to select datamanagement and analytics technologies (see Figure 6).Revenue growth leaders were also 16 percentage pointsmore likely than laggards to create policies that help theirbusiness fail or succeed quickly. CIOs who embracebusiness autonomy on these issues will be rewarded.

› Stop trying to be accountable for “big data.” Our studyshowed that lagging firms depend on IT organizations toset the vision for big data, whereas leaders tend to gettheir big data vision from CEOs, the board of directors,digital executives, and data science teams (see Figure 7).

FIGURE 6To Become A Leader, Enable A Culture Of Innovation And Experimentation

Base: 77 growth laggards and 57 growth leaders at companies with 100 to 4,999 employeesSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“To what extent do you employ the following approaches to big data and analytic investment?”(We usually do this)

Less than 5%YoY growth

15% or more YoYrevenue growth

Invest according to an enterprise data and analyticsstrategy that is driven by IT 38%

37%

Lines of business or departments select and acquire thetechnology they need for analytics 38%

40%

Lines of business or departments select and acquire thetechnology they need for data management 23%

40%

Lines of business or departments source the data theyneed from third parties without involving IT,

security, or compliance 27%42%

Invest in foundational data management technologybefore attempting complex business solutions 43%

44%

Focus on making culture, process, and skill changesbefore we decide on technologies 36%

53%

Invest according to an enterprise data and analyticsstrategy that is owned and driven by our business 43%

53%

Invest in solving problems with data quality and governancethat impede our ability to achieve our analytics vision 39%

54%

Test and pilot ideas and look to fail or succeed quickly 44%60%

6

Our data also showed that IT is more involved indeveloping the big data road map at leading firms. Whatdoes this mean? Taken together, we think that technologymanagement executives who surrender big dataleadership to able and willing CEOs and boards — andfocus on delivering customer-obsessed businessoutcomes using big data technology — will be the oneswho succeed. But they cannot do this until the business iswilling to become more accountable.

› Reorder what you do. Leaders work in a different order,according to our study. If you are one of the 20% of firmsthat fell into our leader group, life is good. But if you are

not, you can still study the steps that leaders take andmake an effort to change how you implement big datasolutions (see Figure 8). For example, immature firmstend to spend a lot of time trying to understand thebusiness vision and strategy because they believebusiness strategy and big data capability must be“aligned.” Leaders do not have to do this because theirbusiness strategy is a big data strategy. Instead, theyfocus on building analytic applications that automateinsight discovery and implementation. They also buildcapabilities that let them measure outcomes and iterate— which are key components of systems of insight.

FIGURE 7IT Plays A Critical Role In Developing Big Data Strategy From The Business’ Vision

Base: 71 very mature and 73 immature/no strategy big data decision-makers at companies with 100 to 4,999 employees*Base: 77 growth laggards and 57 growth leaders at companies with 100 to 4,999 employeesSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“Where are your firm’s visions for big data andadvanced analytics likely to come from?”

Immature/no strategy (N = 73)Very mature (N = 71)

HR leadership 7%3%

Operations leadership 10%13%

Digital leaders 10%23%

Product/engineeringleadership 11%

15%

Finance leadership 12%17%

Business innovationleadership 14%

14%

Data science teams 18%31%

Non-IT C-level 21%17%

IT leadership (except CIO) 22%18%

Business analyticsexecutives 22%

25%

Marketing leadership 25%25%

Line-of-business executiveleadership 27%

28%

CEO/board of directors 27%41%

CIO/seniormost IT leader 49%39%

“How do the following roles generally helpset your organization’s vision and strategy

for big data analytics?”*(Developing strategy and roadmap)

Less than 5% YoY revenue growth15% or more YoY revenue growth

C-level executives(except CIO) 26%

32%

Business analyticsexecutives 35%

37%

Line-of-businessdept. managers 43%

37%

Line-of-businessdept. executives 48%

37%

Business analyticsmanagers 47%

40%

CIO/head of IT 31%44%

IT executives(VP and above) 40%

51%

IT architects 48%54%

IT managers 48%65%

7

FIGURE 8Success Depends On Measuring The Outcomes Of Big Data Insights And Continuously Optimizing

Base: 71 very mature and 73 immature/no strategy big data decision-makers at companies with 100 to 4,999 employeesSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“Please rank the five implementation steps that you have done, or are likely to do, in order of priority.”(Ranked in top five)

Immature/no strategy

Very mature

Identify a champion27%

29%

Obtain business funding approval47%

32%

Complete end user requirements analysis 41%34%

Select and implement enterprise analytics tools 33%38%

Experiment/iterate on possible solutions 37%40%

Identify ideas and hypotheses for testing 42%41%

Test and refine analytics model 36%45%

Ensure foundational technology investments are in place 41%45%

Understand business vision and strategy 67%46%

Acquire the right data and prepare it 49%48%

Measure outcomes of insight-driven action and iterate 30%51%

Build and deploy analytic applications 44%56%

8

Key Recommendations

Forrester’s in-depth analysis of the difference between firms experiencing big data analytics success and those thatare struggling with analytics yielded many actionable insights. Technology management executives who take thefollowing steps will help their business move into the leader group:

› Accept a supporting role. Our study clearly shows that when IT takes the mantle of big data visionary, firmssuffer. If you find your business is happy to let you lead, then you must lead from behind until your business isready to take the reins. This means you need to let failures happen, be ready to suggest alternatives, and refuseto accept accountability for tough organizational issues that the business must address in order to succeed.

› Foster innovation by favoring agility. Every major technology decision — such as upfront cost versus TCO oragility versus reliability — is a tradeoff. To make the most out of data and analytics, your business needs toinnovate and take risks. This means it will change its mind frequently. In this age of the customer, you must favorspeed, which means investing in solutions that favor agility, such as cloud platforms.

› Invest in insight platforms. Your business needs help where it is planning the most changes. For many firms,this means digital and customer experience transformation. Review your firm’s transformation road map, identifyoutcomes that define success, and work to define systems of insight to measure and change priority outcomes.Invest in building insight platforms so your business can quickly build and run analytic applications that turn bigdata into action. Then help them learn and optimize through continuous software and insight delivery.

9

Appendix A: Methodology

In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 408 organizations with between 100 and 4,999 employees in the US,the UK, France, Germany, China, Japan, and Australia to evaluate how IT and the business each approach big datainitiatives and what mature companies do to succeed. Survey participants included decision-makers in both IT and businessroles who are responsible for big data and analytics at their organizations. The study began in February 2016 and wascompleted in March 2016.

Appendix B: Supplemental Material

RELATED FORRESTER RESEARCH

“Digital Insights Are The New Currency Of Business,” Forrester Research, Inc., April 27, 2015

10

Appendix C: Demographics/Data

FIGURE 9Survey Firmographics

Base: 408 big data decision-makers at companies with 100 to 4,999 employees(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“Please estimate your firm’s/organization’saverage year-over-year revenue growth

rate over the past three years.”

Negative 0%

0% to lessthan 1% 2%

1% to 4% 16%

5% to 9% 35%

10% to 14% 33%

15% to 19% 10%

20% or more 4%

“Which of the following best describes theindustry to which your company belongs?”

“Using your best estimate, how many employeeswork for your firm/organization worldwide?”

“In which country are you located?”

Legal services 2%

Advertising or marketing 2%

Media and leisure 2%

Government 2%

Agriculture, food, and beverage 3%

Consumer product manufacturing 3%

Chemicals and metals 3%

Electronics 3%

Retail 3%

Business or consumer services 3%

Travel and hospitality 3%

Construction 3%

Manufacturing and materials 4%

Transportation and logistics 4%

Healthcare 4%

IT/technology 5%

Education and nonprofits 13%

Telecommunications services 12%

Oil and gas 13%

Financial services and insurance 13%

100 to 499employees

29%

500 to 999employees

36%

1,000 to 4,999employees

35%UK: 13% DE: 13%

FR: 13%

CN: 13%

JP: 13%

AU: 8%

US: 26%

11

FIGURE 10Survey Demographics

Base: 408 big data decision-makers at companies with 100 to 4,999 employees(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016

“Which title best describes your position at your organization?”

“What is your level of responsibility for the following aspects of big data at your organization?”

IT (N = 200) Business (N = 208)

Seniormostbusiness

leader37%

Executive inline of business

or function42%

Manager inline of business

or function21%

Seniormost ITdecision-maker

in the firm51%

VP in IT14%

Director in IT35%

I am often the finaldecision-maker

I provide significant input tothe final decision-maker

I have some input inthe decision-making

Setting technology strategy or budget 59% 37% 4%

Evaluating and recommending data andanalytics technology vendors 61% 35% 4%

Setting business analytics or business datastewardship and governance strategy or budgets 63% 30% 6%

Approving acquisition of data andanalytics technology or services 65% 32% 3%

12

Appendix D: Endnotes

1 A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016.

2 Source: “Digital Insights Are The New Currency Of Business,” Forrester Research, Inc., April 27, 2015.

3 A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell EMC, March 2016.