Dive Brief:

• Less than half of C-level executives are confident about the insights they get from data and analytics in the area of risk and security, according to a new report from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by KPMG, which surveyed 2,165 data and analytics decision makers from 10 countries.

• Even fewer (38%) trust the data they acquire around customer insights, and only one-third are confident about their insights around business operations.

• Nearly 70% of leaders believe using data and analytics could put their reputation at risk. 

Dive Insight:

Though many enterprises are collecting Big Data, not all trust that they are managing their data and analytics processes effectively enough to drive decision making and desired outcomes, according to KPMG. The firm suggests companies "adopt a framework for assessing quality, effectiveness, integrity and resilience to help ensure trust in the data they collect and use."

To fully capitalize on all the benefits of Big Data, companies have to find better ways to harness it. A large part of that for enterprises is finding the right talent. Demand, and salaries, have skyrocketed for data scientists and data analytics professionals. Those professionals are projected to see the largest non-executive salary jumps in the coming year. One of their primary goals is to figure out what companies are doing with data and how they can leverage the insight organizations gain. 

The study also shed light on how most businesses currently use their data and analytics tools. KPMG found about 50% of companies use data and analytics tools to analyze existing customers, approximately 48% use them to find new customers and about 47% use them to develop new products and services.