Teradata survey confirms crisis in business becision-making
By Zhao Renfeng
Updated: 2004-10-12 13:59

The decision-making crisis is global, with Chinese executives expressing similar concerns with their European counterparts, according to senior executives of large corporations queried by Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation.

Sixty-five per cent of Chinese executives surveyed said that data has doubled or tripled compared to last year. Chinese executives are significantly more likely to say that the number of business decisions has increased in the past year (83 per cent in China vs 75 per cent in the United States).

Although Chinese executives reported less time pressure on decisions than US executives, 65 per cent say that decisions are more complex this year than last.

Meanwhile, nearly 80 per cent of European executives surveyed consider the information that is available to them for making business decisions to be somewhat or not very accurate.

Approximately three-quarters of US executives and over half of their counterparts at European companies said that the lack of "right time information" has cost their company money.

These findings of the third annual decision-making survey of US executives were released in Seattle yesterday (October 11) at the 18th Teradata PARTNERS User Group Conference and Expo, the world's largest data warehousing and analytics event.

According to the survey, three-quarters (75 per cent) of the senior executives of top US companies - 67 per cent with annual revenues exceeding US$1 billion - said that the number of daily decisions has increased over last year, slightly more than in the previous two studies. For three consecutive years, Teradata's surveys have found that the increase in data is compounding, with 97-100 per cent of respondents saying that data is increasing and well over half saying data is doubling or tripling over the previous year (57 per cent in 2004). And greater than 50 per cent said that decisions are more complex this year than last year.

"These findings tell us why companies today are moving enterprise analytics to the top of their priority lists," said Bob Fair, Teradata's chief marketing officer. "The overwhelming majority of respondents, more than 70 per cent, say that poor decision-making is a serious problem for business. The top casualties of poor decision-making are profits, company reputation, long-term growth, employee morale, productivity and revenue."

This year, Teradata analyzed results from two distinct groups, those who rate their decision-making capabilities as excellent - 'decision champions' - and those who rate their capabilities as poor - the 'decision challenged'.

"Seventy-five per cent of decision champions say that the right information is available when they need it and that they get information fast enough to help make decisions, compared to only 19 per cent of the decision challenged," said Fair. "Seventy per cent of decision champions said that it is easy to navigate, understand and use available information, versus only 6 per cent of the decision challenged.

"According to the analysis, a key difference between the two groups is that 75 per cent of the decision champions say they have a centralized enterprise data warehouse, while only 19 per cent decision-challenged do," Fair commented. "These sharp contrasts confirm what we're seeing in the marketplace with our customers - that the best companies are making enterprise analytics a top priority. In addition, the majority of all respondents to our survey said that enterprise data warehousing would improve many facets of business, including long-term growth, profitability, productivity and customer service."

The Teradata study was fielded between July 23 and August 3, 2004, querying 202 executives, with follow-up conducted September 3-9, 2004. Fifty-one per cent are vice presidents or hold higher titles including chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief marketing officer or chief technical or information officer. Sixty-seven per cent are with companies that have annual revenue of US$1 billion or higher. A broad range of industries and functional departments were represented.

Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation, is the global technology leader in enterprise data warehousing, analytic applications and data warehousing services. NCR Corporation, based in Ohio, the United States, is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers and it is also the world's largest ATM manufacturer.