Corporate decision-making used to be a slow, deliberate process. Where it was available, data was collected from various parts of the business and entered into ERP or mainframe systems. The IT department then printed monthly or quarterly reports that were delivered to executives and business analysts, who then attempted to extrapolate trends from this historical data to make decisions about the future.

These days, information needs to be complete and consistent, and delivered on a real-time or near real-time basis. Decision-makers require the timeliest and most detailed information on how key performance indicators measure up to corporate goals.

However, many organizations have overdone it with data delivery. They have turned on firehoses of data, and the result has been a drought in the midst of a deluge. Decision-makers don’t have the tools or capabilities to find the right data that can be turned into actionable information.

A new survey of 494 members of the Quest International Users Group, conducted in partnership with Cognos, an IBM company, brings to light the paradox that is affecting the quality of information for decision-making at many companies. That is, data managers are wrestling with managing an information overload - meaning there’s too much data being dumped on decision-makers, as well as a lack of complete information available for decision-making.

In this survey, 87 percent of respondents said their decision-makers are hampered by a lack of complete information at least some of the time, while 78 percent said the challenge is information overload - having too much data, but too little time to understand it.

Many organizations have flooded decision-makers with data, believing that this will enhance their ability to make well-informed decisions. However, executives and managers are having a hard time sifting through a lot of noise - conflicting data from different sources or dated data - to get at the nuggets of information that are actually relevant to decisions. Large numbers of respondents, at least 83 percent, agree that the data their organizations are generating are either inconsistent or dated.

To address this glut of information - and be able to leverage the data that is meaningful to the business - many respondents are adopting or considering adoption of performance management tools. Such tools deploy business intelligence, planning and/or analytic application software and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance. In fact, more than three out of five respondents' companies said performance management is an "important" IT priority.

However, there’s still much work to be done in this area. Most respondents, 55 percent, rated their current performance management systems as marginal. In addition, only a handful said they are receiving adequate funding for these projects.

In addition, in companies where performance management systems are deployed, few decision-makers have access to these tools. At most companies, fewer than 10 percent of employees have access to performance management software on a regular basis. Companies want to increase this access over the next few years, however. The challenge is to increase the accessibility and ease of use of these tools.

Most data for performance management comes out of enterprise application environments; and companies say they draw data from many sources to present in front-end dashboards or reports. Almost half of the respondents said they need to plug into at least between two and five data sources to effectively deliver a performance management solution. Another 30 percent indicated that they would need to plug into more than five data sources. Among the largest companies in the survey, close to half need more than five data sources.

About the Author:

Joe McKendrick edits 5 Minute Briefing: Data Center, serving the SHARE community. He can be reached at Joe@dbta.com.