Without data, hardly anything works in the German economy

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85 percent of companies see great importance of data for their business
Legal obligation to exchange data not helpful
Data is becoming increasingly important for companies in all sectors. For 85 percent of companies in Germany with 50 or more employees, data usage is already very or fairly important. And 91 percent are convinced that data usage will be very important in two years.

This is the result of a survey conducted by the digital association Bitkom among 503 companies with 50 or more employees. "Only those who have data and use it sensibly will be economically successful in the future," says Bitkom President Achim Berg. "Legal requirements for data protection and antitrust law must be designed in such a way that innovative business models also have room to develop."

The vast majority of companies collect, analyze and use data internally, with just 8 percent saying they do not do so. However, in the majority of companies, this data is only used for simple analyses. Three quarters (74 percent) of companies collect, analyze and use data to support personnel deployment, and two thirds (64 percent) for financial planning and liquidity management.

But only a minority of 27 percent use data for preventive maintenance and only 15 percent for simulations of operational processes or model calculations to drive adaptation processes. And just 8 percent use data for research purposes. Around half of the companies (48 percent) collect, analyze and use data to assess existing customers, but only 35 percent try to win new customers in this way.

17 percent compare themselves with competitors using data. Just 18 percent use the data to develop new products or services, and only 12 percent develop new data-driven business models . "Companies should not only rely on data where they have always done so or where it is obvious. We need a culture of data usage in all areas of the company," says Berg.

According to the companies, there are two main ways to facilitate the use of uk gambling data data in their own company: firstly, corporate cooperation (48 percent), and secondly, the expansion of open data approaches (42 percent), in which the public sector makes available, for example, existing weather or traffic data. One in four companies (23 percent) would like to see the development of a European data ecosystem, and around one in five (18 percent) would like to see the expansion and promotion of data markets. 16 percent are in favor of setting up fiduciary-managed data pools.

Last in the list of helpful measures is the introduction of a legally guaranteed right to access other companies' data, which is only supported by 13 percent. "A legal obligation to exchange data is obviously the least helpful for companies," said Berg. "Instead, companies should be given as much flexibility as possible to negotiate the necessary regulations themselves through contracts and to develop new value creation potential."

Note on methodology: The information is based on a survey conducted by Bitkom Research on behalf of the digital association Bitkom. 503 companies from all sectors with 50 or more employees in Germany were interviewed by telephone. The survey is representative of the economy as a whole.

The questions were: “What importance does data have in your company at the moment?”, “What importance do you think data will have in your company in two years?”, “For which of the following purposes do you currently collect, analyze and use data in your company?” and “Which of the following measures would simplify or improve access to data for your company?”