Decision makers worldwide overwhelmingly agree that data insights improve decision making, but they still face challenges in effectively implementing and leveraging analytics, a new study by EMC has found. The enterprise storage vendor surveyed 10,700 execs and practitioners from 50 countries to find out what’s holding companies back from pursuing their goals.

Nearly 80 percent of the respondents indicated that they recognize the value in Big Data, including 84 percent of the participants from North America, but only 36 percent said that their organizations have already achieved a competitive advantage by tapping into unstructured information. This figure is consistent with an earlier Wikibon report that found companies are struggling to realize returns on their analytics investments due to a combination of skill shortages, immature technology, and lackluster use cases.

Another 76 percent noted that their businesses view technology as a strategic objective, and two thirds confirmed they have the ”skills and knowledge in place to complete their business priorities successfully.” But 29 percent have no current plans plans to deploy Big Data solutions, in part due to the economic climate in Europe.

Helene Barnekow, EMC’s head of field and partner marketing, stated:

We weren’t surprised to see that three-quarters of businesses see IT as key to meeting their goals in the next two years – after all, IT can help businesses find efficiencies in a challenging economic climate while providing a platform for innovation for products and customers…It was surprising however to see that one-third of businesses are not considering Big Data solutions – we expect this to change in the near-term as individuals and companies hear more about the transformative benefits that are achievable with Big Data analytics technology.

EMC’s study also reveals that Asia is repositioning itself at the forefront of technology innovation, with 79 percent of Taiwanese companies boasting Big Data success stories. Additionally, 82 percent of firms in Singapore say they don’t suffer from knowledge gaps, and nine out of ten Chinese firms plan on employing analytics at an organizational level.