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PLEASANTON, Calif.- February 25th, 2011 - The largest benchmark research ever done on business analytics establishes for the first time that analytics has become the new engine for business competitiveness and profitability. This landmark research from Ventana Research, which involved input from more than 2,850 organizations, makes clear for the first time the little-understood role of business analytics in the success and failure of businesses.

The research found that more than half of organizations still spend the majority of their time in unproductive data preparation and quality assurance processes rather than in applying analytics to gain the most value from their metrics. It also shows that the application of analytics widely remains a spreadsheet-based activity; spreadsheets play a universal or regular analytics-related role in 88 percent of organizations. Yet these same organizations report issues with data accuracy and timeliness of analytics, and find themselves at a competitive disadvantage against the most mature organizations that are using predictive analytics to help determine future outcomes and mobile technologies to simplify access to analytics and metrics. Applying the Ventana Research Maturity Index, the research finds that most organizations have room to mature in their use of business analytics, with only 15 percent ranking at the highest Innovative of the four maturity levels.

Yet despite the obvious value of analytics and the ready availability of analytics tools, businesses largely are not acting to eliminate the disadvantage at which they find themselves. The research indicates that that only a third of organizations are planning to change the way they generate and apply analytics in the next 12 to 18 months.

This in-depth benchmark research on Business Analytics, the culmination of a year of work from the leading business technology research firm, analyzed business and IT organizations around the world to assess the maturity and direction of their efforts. Ventana Research undertook this research to acquire real-world information about maturity, trends and best practices in how organizations use analytics and key indicators. It explores how they do this now, how teams view the current processes and tools, plans they have to change or improve them, and benefits they hope to gain by doing so.

The findings offer new insights on companies' attitudes toward business analytics. They confirm that business and IT organizations use a variety of analytics, but they have not yet automated many of the underlying data integration and analytics operations needed to generate metrics. The research indicates that the most desired analytics capability is to be able to search for relevant analytics and metrics that answer business questions; businesses also want to be able to drill down into the causes of situations by performing root cause analysis and to be able to collaborate in reviewing analytics. These are capabilities not readily available to organizations that rely heavily on spreadsheets as analytics tools or s data sources. Not surprisingly, the research finds that a quarter of those organizations are not happy with their existing technology.

The research also finds a shifting deployment landscape as more than a third of organizations wants to be able to rent software for business analytics, while the majority still prefer on-premises deployment of business analytics.

"The advent of business analytics is clearly a game-changing opportunity for organizations that want to be more efficient in their business processes and still increase the likelihood of achieving needed levels of bottom-line business performance," noted Robert Kugel, SVP of Research at Ventana Research. "Without a strong business analytics foundation, organizations will not be able to understand where to optimize performance, let alone plan to achieve the goals required for guiding an organization's performance. The organizations that invest in business analytics and collaborate across line-of-business areas and IT are most likely to be innovating in their use of analytics and to achieve increased operational efficiencies.

"This groundbreaking research provides the breadth and depth required to help the industry advance the science of analytics. I believe this research not only will help guide a better understanding of best and worst practices, but also will be a wake-up call for technology suppliers about what matters most to business organizations no matter what their size, industry, level or area of focus."

Ventana Research will release and detail the findings of this benchmark research in a live interactive webinar on March 10th, 2011 at 10:00 am Pacific time that will discuss the research findings and offer recommendations for improvement. Key research findings to be discussed will include:

• top ten recommendations for business and IT organizations.

• the current state of use of analytics and metrics across line of business and IT.

• top patterns in the adoption of new methods of business analytics across industries.

• the types of metrics and indicators that are most important.

• the current state, future direction of and potential investments in business analytics.

• the competencies required for business analytics.

Register for the Webinar

The research was sponsored by EMC and IBM. The Business Analytics benchmark research executive report will be made available following the webinar. Those interested in learning more about the benchmark research can find additional information at http://www.ventanaresearch.com/bam/; information about our research into line-of-business- and IT-specific analytics can be found at http://www.ventanaresearch.com/analytics. As a part of your registration you will receive insights and education from Ventana Research on using technology effectively in business. In the coming six months specific vertical industry benchmarks on analytics will be brought to market.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the leading benchmark research and advisory services firm. We provide expert guidance to help organizations manage and optimize performance - to become not only more efficient but more effective. Our unparalleled insights and best practices guidance are based on our rigorous research-based benchmarking indexes of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions worldwide. The combination we offer of benchmark research, rigorous market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver business and technology education and expertise to our clients where and when needed. The Ventana Research Indexes - the Value Index and the Benchmark Index family - have redefined the research industry by providing accessible, easy-to-use research-based business and technology guidance to businesses.

Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; the many business and IT professionals worldwide who are members of our community benefit from Ventana Research's insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe.  Ventana Research was ranked the #1 analyst firm you can trust in enterprise software for 2009 for its relevance to the industry. We focus on business and technology trends and best practices that maximize organizations' potential to perform while reducing the time, cost and risk and still achieve optimal outcomes.

Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Business Week’s Business Exchange.

Media: Copies of benchmark research report and interviews are available upon request.

Media Contact:

Marisela Reynoso

(925) 242-2579

marketing@ventanaresearch.com