According to a Salesforce survey, a full 41 percent of executives see limited data knowledge in their company as a major obstacle to realizing the full potential of the data they collect.

At the same time, the study shows that these same executives are looking to invest even more this year to improve data literacy within their organization. These numbers come from Untapped Data Research’s survey of nearly 10,000 executives and decision makers in 10 different countries. With the survey, Salesforce wants to show how important it is to use relevant data tools and to train employees in the use of these tools.

Too much data, not enough data analysis skills

“Business leaders experience one of the toughest economic markets of our time, but they have an untapped asset for better decision making: their data,” said Juan Perez, CIO at Salesforce. “A combination of data, analytics, and the necessary data knowledge helps companies maximize their technology investments and discover opportunities to drive their business strategy and build customer trust,” said Perez.

Aside from the fact that companies lack the skills to properly understand the data they collect, executives also struggle to deal with the massive amount of data. More than 30 percent of respondents state that they are overwhelmed by the amount of information in their company. This challenge will only increase as the amount of data collected by companies is expected to double by 2026.

Intentions and actions not yet coordinated

Most business leaders (80%) agree that data is essential to making decisions. Additionally, 73 percent say it helps combat uncertainty and build trust. However, it seems that few companies are actually putting this need to understand data into practice.

Only 33 percent of respondents say they use data to make pricing decisions during these times of economic change. Even fewer companies (29%) use data to shape their strategy when entering new markets.

The good news is that organizations are aware of the gap between their intent to use data and actually interacting with the information available. A large proportion (73%) of companies plan to continue investing in data analytics and employee training. At the same time, 19 percent state that they want to invest less or not at all in data competence.