Independent Global Study Reveals Most Organizations Concerned Over Corporate Data Accuracy

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwire - Jun 14, 2011) - During its 2011 Summit User Conference, Information Builders, an independent leader in business intelligence (BI) solutions, released the results of an international survey of IT managers, revealing that two thirds of companies surveyed lack confidence in their data for accurate business decision-making. This confidence crisis is largely due to a perceived lack of accurate data within the enterprise and the inability to access it in real time.

The global study was conducted by an independent specialist technology market research company, Vanson Bourne, across 700 senior IT decision-makers from a variety of verticals in seven different countries. The research found that 69 percent of respondents believe their data is not reliable and that more accurate data is needed in order for smarter decision-making. Respondents expressed a strong desire to extend data access to clients with 27% of financial services respondents and 36% of healthcare organizations identifying this as a priority over the next 12 months.

Poor data quality and inaccurate access to data were common frustrations voiced by the survey's respondents. Globally, half of all organizations interviewed believe the responsibility for poor data quality rests with the IT department and that the inability to efficiently manage data results in higher costs across the organization. When it comes to data access, 60 percent of respondents say that employees do not have access to data in true real time and 42 percent report that this lack of access is detrimental. Survey respondents also reported some interesting findings related to the way in which they're creating and accessing data reports, the business detriments of relying on poor quality data and how they anticipate mobile BI and other emerging tools will mitigate these challenges.

On average, the majority of respondents say that BI is either important or very important to the executive team, finance, IT, sales, and HR. Despite this perceived importance, however, the majority of organizations surveyed admit that data is not easily accessible to employees and point to increasing pervasiveness of BI across the enterprise as the way to address this discrepancy. In fact, increasing the pervasiveness of BI was cited by a third of respondents as the most likely reason to begin a data quality project, with 52 percent of the organizations surveyed hoping to extend or improve data access to operational employees and support staff.

"Poor data quality and limited access to information can increase operating costs and damage customer and partner relationships," said Michael Corcoran, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Information Builders. "As the results of our survey underscore, IT managers are demanding quality data, and the ability to access it with reduced latency, in order to do their jobs more effectively. This theme of better data leading to smarter business decisions is something we will explore in-depth this week at Summit."

Additional survey results will be highlighted in subsequent Information Builders releases.

About Information Builders
Information Builders provides software and services that bring smarter decision-making and streamlined processes to leading organizations in business, government, and education worldwide. The company's software is installed in tens of thousands of locations, servicing millions of users. Its WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) platform delivers massively scalable information applications, analytics, and customer-facing portals to the new generation of information users to deliver game-changing business results. Its iWay Software integration platform allows enterprises to leverage all of their information resources to streamline internal and business-to-business processes while escalating the overall accessibility and integrity of information regardless of environmental complexity. Headquartered in New York City with 60 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,350 people and has established significant industry partnerships. Visit Information Builders at informationbuilders.com. For ongoing news, go to informationbuilders.com/new or follow Information Builders at @infobldrs.