Despite $20B Business Intelligence Market, Users Still Prefer the Humble Spreadsheet

Kloudio, a data process automation platform that allows you to access, prepare, and act on SaaS and database data in your favorite spreadsheet, released its 2021 Data-Driven Decision-Making Report today.

Administered in early 2021, the report surveyed over 4,200 business professionals about the use of data and data tools in their organization.

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The survey found that, despite a $20 billion Business Intelligence market, 84% of professionals prefer the familiarity of spreadsheets like Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel for last-mile analysis—64% of whom have access to a BI tool but still opt for spreadsheets.

Moreover, those who access their data from BI tools still spend 75% of their time gathering, cleaning, and manipulating the data post-download.

The demand for data—and the insights it provides—is higher than ever. Given this rapid influx, data accuracy and consistency are critical for business teams. Over a quarter of survey respondents elected this as their biggest data challenge, regardless of company size, industry, or data access method.

Considering this priority, it makes sense that business users prefer tools in which they’re most comfortable.

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“We have many conversations with people about their data usage and how they leverage data to help them make business decisions. We know from experience that people love and use spreadsheets every day,” said Krishna Bhat, CEO of Kloudio. “Despite the popularity of BI tools, there’s still a need for simple data processing and spreadsheet integration. And, as much as people love spreadsheets, there is room to supercharge them to meet the data needs of today’s business teams.”

The Business Intelligence market continues to grow at 12% CAGR, and BI tools remain the software of choice, specifically with large companies of 1,000+ employees, as the report reflected.

Despite friendly dashboards and report visuals, data teams and resources are required to bring these features to life—these resources that only the big enterprises have.

In this respect, BI tools are a double-edged sword: If you need data resources to set up these tools, how agile are they for your business users? How can you ensure they don’t become a bottleneck for your business users?

How can SMBs without in-house data resources bridge the knowledge gap for business users who aren’t as data-savvy—yet still need access to this data?

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