More than 75% of midsize to large businesses are implementing big data-related solutions within the next 12 months - with customer care, marketing and sales departments increasingly driving demand, according to new Microsoft research released in Asia Pacific.
The “Global enterprise big data trends: 2013” study surveyed more than 280 IT decision-makers in leading business with a global footprint.
The survey identified finds that demand for big data is increasingly taking place outside of the IT department. Customer care alone took up 41% of the demand, followed by sales (26%), finance (23%) and marketing (23%).
Nearly 90% of customers surveyed dedicate a part of their budget to addressing big data. 17% are in the early stages of researching big data solutions, and 13% have fully deployed big data solutions.
Nearly half of customers (49%) reported that growth in the volume of data is the greatest challenge driving big data solution adoption. Around 41% saw difficulties in having to integrate disparate business intelligence tools, while 40% took to task the tools used in gleaning business insights.
Big Data Transforming Asia-Pacific
The Asia-Pacific region today is witnessing one of the highest growths in big data globally due to the dramatic transformation of its nations. IT research firm IDC projects a five-year 46.8% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in Asia Pacific’s big data technology and services market from $258.5 million in 2011 to $1.76 billion in 2016.
Arun Ulagaratchagan, General Manager, Server & Tools Division, Microsoft Asia Pacific, said: “Increasingly, more and more organizations are starting to understand the value of big data not just as a solution for IT problems, but as a competitive advantage. No matter the industry, big data can be used to manage customer demands and expectations, predict behavior, respond to rapidly changing market conditions, and improve overall operational efficiency.”