Internal data more useful to BI than external data

Business intelligence analysts typically find internal data more valuable than external data and structured data more useful than unstructured data, according to a new survey from Clutch.

The survey of professionals using BI data as part of their jobs found that 65% believe that internal data is of greater use than external data. Some 70% also report that internal data is among the types their businesses use the most.

Internal data is defined as information generated within a company, including sales quotas, revenue, marketing outputs and HR. This is distinct from external data, such as information collected about consumers from surveys or over social media.

Likewise, 83% of BI data analytics users find structured data — information that can be stored in a database or spreadsheet and is easily searchable — to be more valuable than unstructured data. Examples of unstructured data include text, images and music, as well as Internet of Things and social network data.

In both cases, these data types were considered more useful due to their accessibility and the increased speed in which insights can be generated.

But respondents also noted that external data can benefit companies as well, because this data type is essential to helping companies understand their customers and generating a 360° view of the business.

The survey also indicated that BI users most commonly tend to adopt analytics software to facilitate statistical analysis (63%), data management (62%) and data visualisation (42%).

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