Forrester Research: Data Teams Spend 70% of Time on External Data Prep - A Deep Dive

Understanding the Pain Points: Data Team Challenges in External Data Preparation

Forrester Research has recently published a report that reveals some pain points for data teams. According to the report, data teams are spending a significant amount of time, around 70%, preparing external data for analysis, rather than actually analyzing it. The report highlights the challenges that data teams face when ingesting, integrating, and preparing new external data sets for analysis, and the need for better tools and automation to handle a large influx of new data sources.

The report indicates that nearly 80% of surveyed data leaders want a faster and more efficient way to onboard new external data sources. This finding suggests that there is a growing demand for external data and that organizations are looking to leverage this data to drive business value. However, the report also found that 46% of leaders agree their teams don’t have the right tools and automation to handle a large influx of new data sources.

The Time Crunch: 70% of Data Team’s Effort on External Data Preparation

One of the most significant findings of the report is that, on average, surveyed leaders said their teams spend 70% of their time with a new data set prepping it for analysis, compared to just 30% of their time on actual data analysis. This means that data teams are spending a significant amount of time and resources preparing data, which is reducing their capacity to analyze it and extract insights. This finding highlights the need for organizations to invest in better tools and technologies to streamline the data preparation process and enable faster time-to-value with external data sets.

Another key finding of the report is that over 80% of those surveyed affirmed that they want more options to outsource parts of their external data management processes as needed. This finding suggests that many organizations are open to outsourcing some aspects of their data management to third-party providers who can offer specialized expertise and tools.

The report highlights the challenges that data teams face when ingesting, integrating, and preparing external data sets for analysis. Every external data set is shaped differently and requires significant effort to reindex and integrate with other data sources. The lack of standardization across data sets and the need for manual data preparation processes is a significant challenge for data teams. The report suggests that organizations need to invest in better tools and automation to streamline the data preparation process and enable faster time-to-value with external data sets.

In conclusion, the Forrester Research report reveals some concerning findings for data teams. The report highlights the challenges that data teams face when ingesting, integrating, and preparing new external data sets for analysis. The findings suggest that organizations need to invest in better tools and automation to streamline the data preparation process and enable faster time-to-value with external data sets. Outsourcing some aspects of data management to third-party providers may also be an option to consider. Ultimately, organizations that want to leverage external data to drive business value need to understand the challenges and opportunities facing their data teams and make the changes needed to better integrate and prepare new external data sets at scale going forward.

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Source: Forrester
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