Data deluge creating a revolution in enterprise decision making

LAS VEGAS: The deluge of data being produced by new technologies and the tools to mine this data are creating unheard of opportunities to businesses, according to a leading academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Speaking at the SAS Global Forum event Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, said this new era of IT is driving the biggest change in businesses practices ever seen, and had, in part, been helped by the recession.

"Every time a new technology is introduced, from the assembly line to electricity, it drives a set of changes within businesses. The successful ones are those that figure out the complementary fit of these technologies to their business," he said.

"The recessions forced businesses to think differently and this has helped to provide improved business performance, which in turn is improving productivity because of the ways in which companies are using IT."

However, while IT had been at the heart of this change, merely implementing systems is not a guarantee of success as they must sit alongside the right processes and culture within organisations, Brynjolfsson explained.

Soon to be released research by MIT on 330 companies found that those that use data to help improve decision making saw a four per cent increase in productivity over those that do not.

Profitability and market value increased by six per cent but, while IT systems are becoming more ubiquitous and easy to use, there is a growing gulf between those companies using technology successfully and those that are not.

"At the moment a lot of companies don't know what they're doing so we've reached a stage where the leaders in IT innovation are continually pulling away from the rest, even though the technology in use is becoming increasingly common," Brynjolfsson said.