News Feature | May 1, 2015

Study Finds Big Data Is Changing Traditional Business Boundaries

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Study Finds Big Data Is Changing Traditional Business Boundaries

Big Data is about business disruption, according to a joint study by CapGemini and EMC. The study Big & Fast Data: The Rise of Insight-Driven Business found 56 percent of enterprises surveyed report they will increase their investments in Big Data over the next three years.

In the study’s foreward, Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz writes, “Businesses have been realizing that Big Data is more than a ‘nice to have.’ It is critical to surviving and prospering in an increasingly digital world. As the findings of this study reflect, Big Data can be utilized to drive productivity, enhance existing revenue, and even create entire new lines of business, based on new business models.”

Of the study’s respondents, 65 percent assert that to ignore Big Data is to risk becoming irrelevant and/or uncompetitive in today’s changing market. In fact, 59 percent report that data is becoming a core component of their company’s market value and is swiftly overtaking traditional products and services in value.

“There are pressures on prices and business (and getting more business), and Big Data is one of the ways to see how you can expand the business and get tighter prices. It is not just cost-cutting; it is about getting into other areas of business that you didn’t think you could,” writes one respondent from a U.S. financial services company.

Despite the disruptive power of Big Data, however, only 27 percent of those surveyed in a related CapGemini study said their Big Data initiatives were successful.

Big Data also is changing traditional business boundaries, 64 percent said, by allowing non-traditional providers to gain footholds in their industries. The study finds 58 percent expect to face increased competition from start-ups enabled by data, while 24 percent report disruption from new competitors moving into their industry.

According to the study, 43 percent of organizations are restructuring and reorganizing to exploit Big Data opportunities, with 33 percent already appointing C-level roles to complete the task.