Being unprepared to harness the massive amount of information available about their businesses can prove to be a fatal error for construction firms in Canada, according to research research conducted by the International Data Corporation and commissioned by business analytics software provider SAS.
"Organizations that have begun to embrace big data technology and approaches are demonstrating that they can gain competitive advantage by being able to take action based on timely, relevant, complete and accurate information, rather than guesswork," said Nigel Wallis, research director for IDC.
Big data investments need to pick up
Slow adoption of big data resources is proving to be a growing trend among Canadian businesses. According to the survey, 96 percent of Canadian companies say they want their firm to have the ability to process and act on data in real time, but just 48 percent have invested in the technologies to do so.
Construction firms in the country can look at this data and understand how construction reporting tools are something they can invest in to get a leg up on their competition, but they must do their due diligence when researching which solutions to use.
"For Canadian organizations to take full advantage of the transformative potential of their data, they need to approach it strategically," Nigel said. "That starts with executive understanding and ownership of data as differentiator and an end to the pattern of delegation that has so far characterized Canadian technology adoption."
Harnessing big data provides several benefits
Big data streams can come from a number of different resources, including social media, radio frequency identification technology, web data, global positioning systems information and a several other means. However, the survey shed some light on what companies believe to be the main advantages of big data. Fifty-two percent of respondents said big data improves operational inefficiencies, more than 24 percent said the information streams lead to informed decision making and 23 percent said they have better means of customer services.
"We live in a data-driven world and the companies that harness this data are best poised for success," said Carl Farrell, executive vice president of the Americas for SAS.
