Many enterprises follow their IT organizations into the Big Data revolution without fully understanding the risks and benefits of the technology, a new study from Wikibon found. Co-authors Jeff Kelly and Bert Latamore reached out to vendors and surveyed nearly 100 Big Data practitioners for a fresh perspective on analytics beyond the Fortune 500.

According to the report, 46 percent of practitioners have only realized “partial value” from their Big Data deployments, while two percent deem their implementations “total failures.” Wikibon attributes these figures to the fact that many organizations set their expectations too high: the average mid-size enterprise anticipates a return of 300 to 400 percent on Big Data investments, but has only realized $0.55 for every analytics dollar spent to date.

Another hurdle to unlocking the value of data is that many CIOs don’t recognize the positive impact data analytics can have on their organizations. Coupled with a shortage in skilled Big Data practitioners, lack of vision becomes a barrier to business insights.

“Wikibon’s analysis indicates that enterprises that have achieved significant value from Big Data are those that address both these issues at the onset of new Big Data projects,” the report reads. ”These projects are generally not initiated by IT but driven by line-of-business departments, often marketing, and focus on small but strategic use cases. Practitioners involved in successful projects also indicate they realistically assess the level of skilled practitioners inside the enterprise and often engage outside professional services organizations to fill talent gaps and keep systems running optimally.”

Enterprises that are interested in leveraging Big Data should partner with service providers, Wikibon advises, because “the cost of engaging Big Data services will most often be more than offset by the increase in value achieved by successful Big Data projects.”