(Full disclosure I work with the author, Noah, at Basecamp.)

Not sure if more important than math, but you are right it's extremely important.

One of the biggest on going problems we have isn't getting data in -- it's helping everyone get data out. Even with training sessions, documentation, and some fairly fleshed out "self help" tools, there is still confusion about where to look and how to "find" and "combine" the right data to answer a given question.

One of the ways we've partially solved this problem is through Tableau which is a commercial solution. (I was skeptical about whether we would stick with solutions like Tableau but it has been worth every penny.)