A survey by research firm OC&C Strategy Consultants of over 300 c-suite executives in the UK and US has found that UK companies are currently spending £12bn a year on advanced analytics. This spend is predicted to increase by a quarter ( 26%) in the UK by 2020.

US companies, meanwhile, are spending £58bn annually, which is expected to increase similarly, to an investment of £112bn, according to the research.

The survey also found that almost 70% of the best-performing organisations employ central analytics teams, compared with 26% of the worst performers.

James Walker, partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, said: “There is a clear relationship between spending more on analytics and outperforming your peers – the more you spend, the more superior your performance. Across industries, investment in analytics will increase in the near to medium future, stretching the gap between top and poor performers even wider.”

But while investment is crucial, it’s also important to create the right conditions for analytics to be successful and realise its potential. These include laying the right foundations, grounded in senior leadership commitment; enabling success by giving analytics critical mass at the core of the business; and creating a culture that embraces analytics around people who understand its value.”