Thirty-nine percent of 1,087 polled senior agency executives identified big data as a tool to track performance and set goals, Booz Allen and GBC said Thursday.
Thirty-five percent of respondents see big data as a way to support informed decisions and 32 percent said that big data initiativesâ top goal is to save costs.
“Several recent initiativesâincluding the Affordable Care Act, Executive Order 13636, and Dodd-Frankâare pushing federal leaders to leverage the tools of big data at their agencies,” said Ted Iobst, director of Government Business Council, which commissioned the study.
“Although big data initiatives are providing benefits to some, federal executives have acknowledged there are challenges keeping them from realizing its full potential,” he added.
Respondents identified data standards, expertise, security and privacy issues as hurdles to leveraging what big data could offer.
“Over the last decade, significant advances in big data and analytics have empowered organizations to generate smarter insights from massive volumes of data,” said Thad Allen, an executive vice president at Booz Allen.
“However, the growing complexity and diversity of big data will require a new wave of experts to fully realize the business and mission potential of the information,” he said.
GBC presented the survey results in a viewcast attended by Allen and other big data leaders this week.