Knowledge Workers Find Sales Analytics Lacking
Just 19 percent of knowledge workers are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their current solution for sales force automation (SFA) analytics while more than four-fifths say they augment the built-in analytic capabilities of their SFA solutions with additional tools, according to a Dimensional Research survey.
The survey, commissioned by analytics software provider Birst, also found that 84 percent of respondents experience challenges with their business analytics, and 83 percent believe SFA business analytics solutions would deliver more value if they were easier to use. Both of these numbers were slightly higher among Salesforce.com users, with 86 percent reporting challenges with built-in analytics and 88 percent saying they would deliver more value if they were simpler to use.
Among other findings:
- 71 percent of respondents say they require technical staff to achieve in-depth analysis of their SFA data
- 68 percent of respondents use Microsoft's Excel for SFA business analytics
- 63 percent of Salesforce.com users have purchased or considered purchasing additional analytics tools for their SFA data
- Pipeline management, cited by 66 percent of respondents, and history-based forecasting (61 percent) are the most desired business analytics capabilities among Salesforce.com users
“It is unacceptable for organizations operating in today’s competitive business environment to have Salesforce.com or any other SFA solution in place and still be forced to rely on subpar tools such as Excel spreadsheets to analyze their data,” said Brad Peters, CEO of Birst.
Naturally, Birst hopes the survey will highlight the need for tools such as its own solution accelerator designed specifically for sales analytics. The accelerator delivers reports and dashboards that integrate with Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Oracle CRM (Siebel CRM) and other popular CRM applications.
The entire Dimensional Research report titled “The Current State of SFA Business Analytics” may be downloaded at no charge by registering on the Birst website. Birst will also present a webinar titled “SFA Analytics—Useful or Useless? The Current State of SFA Business Analytics” at 1 p.m. ET on April 26. To register to attend, sign up here.
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