OZ #1 in the world in IoT with majority of enterprises wanting bigger budgets

Australia is embracing big data and backing the growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) to maintain global competitiveness - all good news for the channel.

The 'Data and Analytics Trends 2017' study from Teradata compiled findings from over 900 senior business decision makers in nine major economies around the world (USA, Japan, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, India, Russia and the UK), with some of the key findings including:

• In Australia, eight out of 10 organisations are using big data and analytics to support their business goals, second only to Germany (83%)
• Australia ranks number one in the world when it comes to Internet of Things (IoT) adoption (70%), followed by India (69%) and Germany (63%)
• As a nation, Australia fares less well on digital transformation as a component of IoT, with just over half (54%) of business leaders believing it is embraced, despite leading in terms of adoption of IoT overall
• All of Australian business leaders surveyed agree that an effective data analytics strategy is key to future organisational growth
• The skills shortage remains an issue with 48% of Australian businesses looking to increase training around data and analytics
• More than half (56%) of Australian Organisational decision makers want to see an increased budget allocation for data and analytics

Senior director at Teradata, Martin Wilcox says the amount of data being generated across Australian organisations is growing exponentially and this trend is set to continue.

"The way in which businesses in Australia are embracing emerging technologies like IoT is only going benefit the country in the long-term," Wilcox says.

"Despite this, and given the proliferation of data and devices, ever-changing consumer demands, shrinking budgets and increasing organisational pressures, shows there is still work to be done for Australian businesses when it comes to competing on the global stage.

Underlining this point, the study also found that 84 percent of Australian business leaders believer their current data management system is helping to effectively predict business outcomes, while 100 percent agree that having effective data/analytics is important organisational success.

With more than half of Australian business leaders wanting to see an increase in data and analytics spend, it would seem that awareness of the benefits are clear.

In regards to the potential effects that integrated data analytics has on business decision-making, 70 percent agree that organisational reaction times can be improved, while 79 percent believe that it will improve communication between organisational functions. Improving efficiency (76 percent) and elevating organisational image (76 percent) were also cited as key attributable benefits.

In terms of personal changes, about one third believed improvements in relationships could occur, specifically between customers, vendors and employees.

"Data is the next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity, and is a currency every country will need to be able to trade in.

"In order to take advantage of it, businesses in Australia must be prepared to invest in both the people and the infrastructure, while at the same time placing data at the heart of business decision making," Wilcox concludes.