Deloitte: Lack of business analytics use is

Have you ever walked out of a meeting just completely baffled but too embarrassed to say so and then realized your boss is even more confused? Whew..what a relief, right? It's not GOOD that you're both clueless, but it's at least comforting.

Well if your company is still in the dark about business analytics, you might feel that sense of relief when you read about a recent survey by Deloitte Consulting, which found that nearly one-third of IT executives polled either didn't know if their organization utilized business analytics – or even if they had business analytics capabilities at all. In a press release, Deloitte consultant John Lucker called the poll results "mind-boggling" given the amount of data being collected by companies today and technology available for leveraging that data.

Again, it's not a GOOD thing to be behind the business analytics curve, but it's also nice to know hope is not lost if you're in that boat. In fact, the Deloitte survey did provide some guidance as to why so many companies are so far behind in their business analytics strategy: silos.

Yes, our favorite grain-storage-device-turned-business-metaphor strikes again. According to Deloitte 52% of respondents outlined the top two challenges as: "Departmentally siloed information" and "limited cross functional interaction."