The COVID-19 crisis has presented some new hurdles—but they are ones that many innovative companies are actively working to overcome. Forward-looking companies aren’t sitting the year out waiting for the business climate to improve. They are actively seeking ways to expand their reach and take advantage of new opportunities.
Two recent surveys conducted by CFO Research in conjunction with Vistra found that 92% of multi-national corporations ($100 million-plus) with plans for acquisitions and takeovers before the pandemic are pushing ahead with those plans, despite continued volatility in the global economy. As they enter a new phase of global business, the research found, organizations are aware of the need to overcome evolving hurdles, including turbulence stemming from the public health and economic crises, as well as difficulties related to supply chains, evolving global mobility requirements, and tightening regulations.
Today, organizations seek data-driven insights to advance decision making at all levels. Moreover, a trend toward digital transformation, which was already underway at many organizations, has accelerated since the onset of the global pandemic.
Another survey conducted by Aptum in partnership with Vanson Bourne, underscores how the pandemic has accelerated businesses’ digital transformation plans. More than one-third of respondents have scaled infrastructure to new levels of demand in order to control costs. Nearly half of the businesses surveyed have adopted cloud solutions to provide customers with critical services and 76% are utilizing cloud services to facilitate remote working.
Whether the goal is surfacing timely insights through better analytics, streamlining processes using automation, improving security and governance with better controls, taking advantage of evolving opportunities using cloud services—or any of a range of other possibilities—leading IT companies are continually helping to make these plans a reality for their customers.
To help organizations navigate through a rapidly changing big data ecosystem, each year, Big Data Quarterly presents the Big Data 50, a list of companies driving innovation. We encourage you to explore these companies by visiting their websites.
In addition, following the Big Data 50 list, under the Trailblazers header, executives share their perspectives on their companies’ unique approaches to driving innovation.