Companies using data-driven innovation have increased their productivity 5-10 percent faster than non-users, according to a new OECD report. The migration of economic and social activities to the internet and the advent of the Internet of Things – along with dramatically lower costs of data collection, storage and processing and rising computing power – means data-analytics is increasingly driving innovation and is potentially an important new source of growth, said the OECD. However, the report finds that countries could be getting much more out of data analytics in terms of economic and social gains if governments did more to encourage investment in “Big Data” and promote data sharing and reuse.
According to the report, countries should seize the benefits of data-driven innovation by training more and better data scientists and reducing barriers to cross-border data flows. In addition, governments should encourage investment in business processes, in everything from agriculture and manufacturing to service industries, to incorporate data analytics.
The report also found that there are still too few companies outside the ICT sector investing in data collection and analysis or changing internal procedures to take advantage of it. For example, data gathered by companies’ marketing departments is often not put to use by other departments to drive decisions and innovation, said the OECD.
