The document summarizes key findings from Foundry's 2021 Data & Analytics Study. It found that 41% of organizations plan to increase spending on data-driven initiatives to an average of $11 million over the next year, focusing on improving internal business, existing products, customer insight and service. While 26% of organizations have already implemented such projects, 27% are currently piloting them and 13% plan deployments in the next 12 months. Only 14% now have no plans for data-driven projects, down from 32% in 2016.

1. With growing budgets and adoption on data and analytics, learn more about
what tech leaders are focusing on Foundry’s 2021 Data & Analytics Study.
Data analytics is driving
the business forward
What’s driving data-driven initiatives?
Average spend on
data-driven initiatives
over the next 12 months
$11M
The future of data investment
Data & analytics adoption grows
Budget shifts
41%
Increase
40%
Remain
the same
2%
Decrease
17%
Not sure
Improve
internal
business
49%
Improve
existing
products
Improve
customer
insight and
engagement
Improve
customer
service and
support
Improve IT
operations
47% 45% 38% 35%
Tech leaders reveal their
data-driven plans for the coming year
Already
deployed/
implemented
data-driven
projects
26%
28%
2016 2021
18%
point
swing in
4 years
Process of
implementing
or pilot testing
data-driven
projects
14%
27%
2016 2021
Plans to deploy
or implement
data-driven
projects over the
next 12 months
13% 13%
2016 2021
Implementing
data-driven
projects within
the next
13-24 months
8% 7%
2016 2021
Implement data-
driven projects in
the future but are
struggling to find
the right strategy
or solutions
11%
8%
2016 2021
No plans to
deploy or
implement
data-driven
projects
32%
14%
2016 2021
Top types
of data used
for business
analysis
Transactional data 49%
Business documents 37%
Customer interactions 37%
Customer profile information 36%
Machine-generated data 34%
Source: Foundry Data & Analytics Research, 2021