Just 22% of firms in Australia and New Zealand are currently implementing or expanding corporate strategies to harness big data, according to a study of 150 enterprises in both countries, conducted by Forrester Research for Dell, the US IT firm.

The research also revealed that, even among those companies using big data, the technology is employed only for very specific purposes, such as fraud detection, compliance, risk management and marketing ROI.

“We tend to make data-centric decisions, so I was surprised that when you’re trying to make data-centric decisions, you’re not using that data more effectively,” said Forrester researcher Tim Sheedy, presenting the findings at a recent Dell event.

“It’s one of the big trends, it’s happening everywhere,” he continued. “Every day there are more opportunities to analyse data and make better decisions. But I was surprised that more people didn’t have a strategy to deal with that.”