FEATURE: ANALYTICS
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With the incredible
growth in data becoming
increasingly difficult
to manage, IT leaders
need to find ways to use
it to provide insightful
information. Hesham
El Komy, Regional Vice
President, Middle East,
Africa and India (MEAI),
Epicor Software, tells us
how to avoid ‘analysis
paralysis’ caused by
data overload and apply
analytics to data.
C
Can you explain why there
has been such a tremendous
growth in data and what this
means for the average worker?
There are vast amounts of data being
created, mined and managed every day and,
according to an executive summary by Cisco,
global IP traffic will experience an almost
threefold increase over the next five years.
With broadband speeds set to double by
2021 and more data being shared than ever
before, the amount of information that now
sits at our fingertips is exploding.
Today, data is accumulated from a wide
variety of sources, and it’s becoming
increasingly difficult to manage this growing
wealth of information – which includes
details related to financial transactions,
inventory and production processes – let
alone use it.
Digitalisation also means that workers now
face a daily tsunami of emails. In 2018,
around 124.5 billion business emails were
sent and received worldwide each day,
with the average office employee receiving
over 121 pieces of digital correspondence
daily. Projections show that by 2021, 320
billion emails will be sent everyday, an
increase that will have a detrimental effect
on the productivity and wellbeing of those
receiving them.
What is the impact of this
deluge of data?
There is no denying that data plays a key
role in the everyday decisions made by
organisations and their employees. However,
the sheer volume of information available
today can result in data blindness and
confusion, rather than clarity, when making
all-important business choices, leading to
‘analysis paralysis’.
Recent research indicates that the data
deluge workers experience on a daily basis
is becoming overwhelming. Nearly three
quarters (74%) of employees claim they’re
dealing with more and more data, while
almost two thirds (62%) said they are often
overwhelmed by the sheer volume of emails
they receive. Over a third (35%) went on to
confess they feel stressed every day, due to
information overload.
This is a challenge for workers in every
area of the business, with over two thirds
(62%) of CEOs, 44 % of IT workers, 63%
of operations staff and 70% of finance
professionals agreeing that information
overload impacts them on a daily basis.
Avoid ‘analysis
paralysis’
and use data
to enable
decision-making
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