Survey Says: Companies Need Education on the Value of Social Media and Big Data Analytics

Business Wire

Tuesday, August 7th 2012

Report by Mzinga, Teradata Aster and the Center for Complexity in Business at the University of Maryland provides insight on social software and big data analytics

Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the analytic data solutions company, and Mzinga® (http://www.mzinga.com), a pioneer in social intelligence solutions, services, and analytics for business, today announced the results of a recent industry survey exploring the use of social technologies and big data analytics in business.

Conducted in conjunction with Teradata Aster and the Center for Complexity in Business (CCB) at the University of Maryland, the survey’s primary goal was to create an industry benchmarking report providing professionals with insight into the adoption, use and current state of social business software and big data analytics in businesses.

“The survey results indicate that a wide variety of industries are interested in analytics and the power that analytics can provide them in making business decisions,” said William Rand, assistant professor and director, Center for Complexity in Business. “However, there seems to be a lack of knowledge of how to best implement analytics, and a lack of consistent support for analytics across different platforms. This indicates a strong market need for education and consistent implementation of world-class analytic systems.”

Eighty percent of survey respondents reported using social technologies in one or more areas of business, including marketing, employee collaboration, customer service and support and sales. Other survey findings include:

While the majority of businesses currently utilize social technologies, opportunities exist to attain maximum impact and greater ROI by developing customer and marketing strategies to target trust and influence in their business

While business are attaining some value through social technologies, 49 percent state that they are not using social technologies to their full potential, while only 12 percent of respondents acknowledge that social technologies have helped in their day-to-day roles and responsibilities
The top use cases for social technologies that will impact areas of trust and influence include customer experience, service or support; marketing or brand experience; employee collaboration and knowledge sharing; and sales

As greater emphasis is placed on the impact of social technologies, professionals are struggling to understand analytics and how to measure ROI and value in their business