The analyst firm’s recent survey of 354 data and analytics professionals found that enabling fast business decision-making was the primary reason among respondents for forging a modern data strategy (50%), followed by creating a competitive advantage (19%), empowering employee decision-making (16%) and facilitating customer enablement (15%).

To achieve these goals, companies are building data platforms to manage data more efficiently across their organizations, from the initial collection phase to delivering data insights that drive business actions. But delivering business-ready data remains challenging, particularly for small and midsize companies, said ESG senior analyst Stephen Catanzano — starting with the ever-expanding volume and types of data collected to support modern data platforms.