Data Analytics to be investment priority for top performing companies: PwC’s Digital IQ Survey

Data mining and analysis along with cyber security have emerged as the top investment priorities among companies in India this year as compared to the last year, which indicated highest investment in private and public cloud. This is because with the evolution of cloud based services and its increased adoption among businesses, companies are now realizing the potential of analytics and the business value of information generated out of it, making it one of the top strategic investment priorities over the next three to five years. At the same time companies are keen on addressing any digital threat or risks, hence the focus on cyber security.
The PwC 6th Annual Digital IQ Survey polled nearly 1,500 business and IT executives across 36 countries and examined the digital attitudes and practices of both business and IT executives from around the world.  It identified the digital behaviours, skills, processes, and systems that are consistently found among high performing companies.
There is an enhanced relationship among CIOs and CEOs, CFOs and CMOs, which is proving vital for understanding and analyzing risks and opportunities while developing a technology roadmap for organizations. The survey draws out the importance of strong C-suite relationship – companies with strong C-suite relationships and ‘digital conversations’ within the C-suite were 2.4 times more likely to be top performers.
“India is today uniquely positioned with over 9o percent CIOs, CTOs and CEOs rating the Digital IQ of their companies as ‘strong,” said Debdas Sen, Technology Consulting leader, PwC India. “With the role of the CIO changing, the need to run the IT department as a business, rather than a cost centre is a trend that we are seeing across industry sectors,” he added.
Organizations across industries are ramping up investments in technologies like cloud, mobile, social, data mining and analytics, and considering the implications of other emerging technologies like 3D computing, robotics and sensors. The survey reveals that 92 percent of the Indian respondents have a strong or very strong Digital IQ, compared to the overall global average of 63 percent. This is an increase over previous year, where 85 percent of the Indian companies had rated themselves with a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ Digital IQ.