IDC: Data Professionals Unproductive for 50% of Working Day

In a damming info brief, IDC claims that 50 percent of data professionals time is spent unproductively, by not having the knowledge to find, prepare and govern data.

Data professionals are spending 60% of their days “getting to insight”, which includes searching, preparing and analyzing data.

The other 40% is spent governing, collaborating and describing, things that data analytics firm Alteryx believes are more important.

See also: What Would Happen if We Could Compute a Million Times Faster?

“It is evident that many professionals are not aware of what resources are available within data assets like data lakes, how to access the data, where it came from, or how to glean trusted insights,” said Langley Eide, Chief Strategy Officer at Alteryx, Inc.

“Unless organizations make changes to their infrastructure now, and close the gaps on data discovery, integrity, and cataloging, processes will only become more inefficient as data volume and variety continues to grow.”

Data professionals are also using too many resources, because of a lack of knowledge of how and where data is used and what information assets already exist. According to IDC, professionals waste 10 hours of every week building information on pre-existing assets.

“Data discovery is important to all aspects of business, from operations efficiency to compliance to risk reduction, revenue growth, and beyond,” said Stewart Bond, Director of Data Integration and Integrity Software Research at IDC.

“Knowledge of how, where and why data is used, by whom, and what information already exists will help data professionals refrain from repeating efforts, increase personal productivity and free-up time for more advanced analytics.”

Organizations are losing $1.7 million per year for every 100 employees or €1.1 million per 100 in Europe. In total, organizations in the U.S. are losing $103 million per year.