 "Businesses Bamboozled By Information Explosion")
Businesses think it is important that they respond quickly to changes in their operating environment, but many are worried that the time it takes them to make key decisions is increasing.
An Economist Intelligence Unit survey, sponsored by Progress Software, has found that 74per cent of businesses think the pace of change in their industry’s operating environment has increased over the past five years, with many putting this down to factors such as the volatile economic environment (39 per cent of respondents) and increased competition (36 per cent).
A vast majority of businesses (79 per cent) recognise that it is important to respond quickly to these changes, but nearly half (48 per cent) think the amount of time it takes them to make key decisions has increased over the past five years. Only 22 per cent say that it has declined.
Key reasons for this surprising finding are the rapidly increasing amount of information that businesses need to deal with when making decisions and the increasingly complex and uncertain nature of the environments that they are operating in.
Indicators illustrating the pace of change, include:
More Information
It has been estimated that the world generated 1,200 exabytes of data in 2010, equivalent to a stack of books 1.2 billion miles high.
There was a 56 per cent increase in the number of academic articles published around the world between 1990 and 2007.
Wal-Mart currently processes approximately 1m customer transactions every hour.
The Lehman Brothers email universe was 30 terabytes, twice the number of catalogued books in the US Library of Congress
More Complexity
The number of actors in the market system has increased and the technologies they use are evolving, increasing competition and putting pressure on firms to develop new products and services in order to stay competitive. According to World Bank data:
The share of exports in world GDP increased from 19 per cent to 24 per cent in 2009, reflecting the increase in trade and the development of emerging economies
There was a 365 per cent increase in internet users between 2000 and 2009, including a 1,600 per cent increase in China.
- The number of mobile phone registrations per 100 people increased by 468 per cent between 2000 and 2009, and there is expected to be a big increase in smart phone use over the next five years.
“In an age punctuated by information explosion and continuous change, companies need to not only respond faster but decisively for business advantage,” said Rajvinder Kohli, Vice President, Progress Software India. “The Progress Responsive Process Management solution helps enterprises across a wide range of industries gain and manage responses effectively in real-time,” added Kohli.
About the research:
These research findings are part of a research project conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Progress Software. The findings are based on a survey of 390 business executives conducted in August and September 2011. Respondents were drawn from a range of industries and locations around the world.
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