BARC / Eckerson Group (March 2022, 214 D&A leaders surveyed Nov-Dec 2021) — BI/analytics adoption at 25% of employees on average; "stuck around 20% for many years" per Eckerson
Summary
Claim: BARC / Eckerson Group, Strategies for Driving Adoption and Usage with BI and Analytics (March 2022; global survey of 214 data & analytics leaders, Nov-Dec 2021): "The percentage of employees actively using BI/analytics tools is currently 25% on average, reflecting minimal growth in the past seven years we've been tracking this metric." Co-author Wayne Eckerson has noted the average adoption rate "has been stuck around 20% for many years."
Source: BARC / Eckerson Group report (March 2022).
Confidence: Verified — primary, analyst firm.
Why this matters for Candid: The single strongest piece of independent evidence against the vendor "BI transforms decision-making" framing. Use this number in client conversations, not the untraceable "60-70% graveyard" stat (CORRECTION: the viral "60-70% (or 60-80%) of dashboards go unused (Gartner)" stat cannot be traced to any named Gartner report — vendor folklore).
Related entries
Referenced by (7)
- reference Research brief: dashboards for SMBs — what's worth showing, and when an embedded one earns its keep (June 2026) relates-to
- reference Gartner — "pervasive business intelligence remains elusive, with BI and analytics adoption at about 30% of all employees" (doc 3753469, Howson & Sallam) relates-to
- reference Software Advice (online survey of 243 US business owners/managers) — 5% of SMBs report using a BI dashboard to analyze data; Excel/Google Sheets dominate at 65% relates-to
- reference Caveats for the dashboards brief: pervasive BI/embedded-analytics vendor sourcing; the viral "60-70%" stat is folklore; SMB data thin; retention claims unproven relates-to
- rule R1 — Before building any dashboard, qualify every proposed metric: named owner + named decision + action threshold; if it fails the "what would I do if it moved?" test, drop it depends-on
- rule R4 — Budget 20-30% of build effort annually for maintenance from day one; assign a metric-definitions owner; audit quarterly and archive any dashboard unopened in 30+ days depends-on
- rule R5 — Disregard vendor BI "X% improvement" / "60-70% unused" stats in client conversations; cite BARC (~25%) and Gartner (~30%) adoption baselines depends-on