70% of Large Indian Firms Use Analytics: Study by Analytics India Magazine & SAS

According to a recent study by Analytics India Magazine and SAS titled, 'State of Data Science in Domestic Indian Market 2019,' the overall adoption of analytics and data science was found to be 70%. In other words, 70% of large firms in India have adopted analytics in some form. This is higher than last year's 64%.

This extensive report in collaboration with SAS takes a deep dive into 50 large-sized organisations in India across various industries such as power & steel, telecom, oil & drilling, e-commerce and others to understand the analytics maturity and penetration in these organisations. 

The study found that sectors like telecom, financial services, e-commerce and private sector banks have almost 100% adoption rates, suggesting that there is some level of analytics and data science that is being executed in these organisations. 

Other industries that have witnessed increased adoption of analytics are steel and oil & drilling industries. The study finds that for other industries, the adoption rate remains the same as last year. 

In terms of city-wise adoption, Mumbai leads the pack with the largest data analytics adoption, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi NCR. 

The study suggested that while in many cases, data and analytics function works as a standalone unit, in other cases analytics is embedded in the IT function. The study finds that despite the high adoption rate, analytics is leveraged as a support function for traditional operations like sales & marketing, IT and operations as opposed to a fully standalone service unit. 

It also suggested that contrary to the most widely accepted belief, analytics functions do not usually fall under the IT unit for Indian firms.

Tenure-wise, the average tenure of analytics professionals at Indian firms is 4 years which is slightly higher than last year which was 3.4 years.

In terms of talent retention, Indian telecos lead the race with professionals having the highest experience. The study reports that the median experience level of analytics professionals with Indian firms is 8.2 years. 

In terms of penetration and maturity, e-commerce remains at the highest with data science being a core part of the sector. However, it has decreased in both maturity and penetration compared to last year. 

The biggest change can be seen in the steel industry that has seen a significant increase in the maturity of the analytics functions. The study also suggests that while private sector banking in India sores high on maturity, it is slightly slower than telecom and e-commerce industry. Public sector banking in India has among the lowest analytics penetration among other sectors. 

BENGALURU, Karnataka, India, Nov. 14, 2019