In the State of Analytics and Decision Sciences, the analytics company found that when asked who has overall responsibility for analytics within their organisation, 23% said their chief information officer (CIO); 17% said the head of finance (CFO); with only 4% saying their chief data scientist. However 9% said a chief data officer and 13% a chief analytics officer.

The importance of analytics for a business is gaining awareness with a majority of senior decision makers ( 65%) recognising the positive impact analytics can have on business growth.

Another insight from the report was how companies approach analytical problem solving – few companies said they begin with a business outcome in mind ( 26%); most ( 74%) said ‘we start with the data we know we have access to and go from there’.

On average, the bulk ( 39%) of analytics work still centres on the descriptive – reporting on what’s happening in the business ‘here and now’ – as opposed to predictive analytics at 21%.

Tom Pohlmann, head of values and strategy at Mu Sigma, said: “The report shows that many businesses are misguidedly prioritising data and technology over better decisions. Many are forced to spend the bulk of their effort organising and reporting on what is happening in their business, and not enough time looking at the why and what’s next part of their story.”