You may not be an analytics expert and you may find terms like PMML Integration somewhat daunting. But in reality, the concept is not complex, and the value is outstanding!
There are many business issues surrounding the use of data to make decisions. One such issue is the inability of an organization to gather and analyze data. These enterprises will typically focus on building a team of data scientists or business analysts to help with this task OR they might take on an augmented analytics initiative to provide access to data and analytics for their business users. This is where businesses will often face a second issue; namely that the analytics solution they choose is not designed to easily and quickly provide insight into data and to ensure data quality.
Do you know what Data Democratization is? It’s simple, really. Data Democratization is the purposeful approach to cascading and integrating data into the daily workflow of business users to provide access to crucial information and the tools to analyze and understand that data and use it to make confident decisions. Instead of holding data in silos that are only accessible to IT, business analysts, data scientists and management, the enterprise recognizes the value of providing team members with the right information to do their job and contribute to the bottom line.
‘To succeed in data democratization, you need BI tools that provide data analytics access for all business users.’
Gartner predicts that, ‘75% of organizations will…deploy…multiple data hubs to drive mission-critical data and analytics sharing and governance.’ The key here is the ‘analytics sharing’ piece of the statement!
In order to fulfill the promise of this approach, your enterprise must employ business intelligence solutions that are easy-to-use and designed for business users, without advanced technical skills or advanced analytical skills. These tools allow your team members to engage in analytics and enjoy data democratization without the frustration of leveraging solutions designed for data scientists or IT staff.
Here are a few considerations to give you an idea of the kinds of things you will need to support your data democratization initiative. These factors are crucial to success, as they ensure that your users can and will adopt the BI tools you select to enjoy the new data access you have given them. Without these, you run the risk of spending the time and money to provide access and achieving poor return on investment (ROI) because of poor user adoption.
Embedded BI – By embedding business intelligence into the enterprise apps your users love, you can encourage data democratization and analytics in a single sign-on environment. Users do not have to sign in to multiple systems or move data around. They can start with the data within the ERP, HR, Finance or other system and perform analysis from within that system. Make it as easy as you can, and users will be happy!
Mobile BI – Don’t make your users sit at their desk in an office to use the BI tools. Make these tools accessible from the office and on the road, at home and in a client location or hotel. If you want your users to see the value in data democratization and you want to achieve your goals for this initiative, you must give your users the tools they need WHEN THEY NEED those tools.
Business Intelligence with Seamless User Access and Security – Data democratization does NOT mean throwing caution to the wind. Data must still be secured and accessible to users for the things they need to see, but not for the things they are not eligible to see and not in an environment where data security and privacy are at risk. To democratize your data, you must also ensure data governance, security and access standards and requirements are met.
Natural Language Processing – Make the augmented analytics and BI tools intuitive. Democratized data is no good if the users need an advanced degree to access the data. Natural Language Processing (NLP) allows your users to access data in a familiar way, with a Google-type search interface where they can ask questions using regular language and receive answers in a way that is easy to understand. If they can search, query and find information easily, they are more likely to a) use the system and b) understand the information they produce and make the right decisions.
Tools Designed Specifically for Business Users – The solution you select should be designed for business users, not for data scientists, business analysts, IT or statisticians. While you want the data democratization initiative to expand the skills and knowledge of your team, you do not want them to need advanced skills or training. Select a system that can be adopted and used within minutes – not months. Users want sophisticated functionality in an easy-to-use environment. That is important!
‘If you want your data democratization initiative to succeed, select tools that allow your team members to engage in analytics without the frustration of leveraging solutions designed for data scientists or IT staff.’
There are other considerations but, if you address the ones we have highlighted in this article, you will be well on your way to achieving your data democratization goals and ensuring that your users adopt the solution you select.
BI Tools should provide data analytics access for all business users. Simple, Self-Serve BI Tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals. Let us help you achieve your vision and improve productivity and insight across the organization.
Original Post : Data Democratization Can Succeed with the Right BI Tools!
We all know the saying, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ When it comes to business problems, opportunities and reporting, images and pictures can tell a story that dry data cannot match.
As your business moves toward metrics and measurable results and embraces analytics, it is likely to consider the implementation of augmented analytics across the enterprise.
‘The real beauty of Smart Data Visualization is that it is built within an Augmented Analytics environment that is designed for the average business user without advanced technical skills.’
Gartner predicted that, ‘augmented analytics will be a dominant driver of new purchases of analytics and BI as well as data science and machine learning platforms, and of embedded analytics.’ The decision to invest in augmented analytics and in data democratization means that your business users will need tools that are easy-to-use and provide sophisticated functionality. And, when it comes to the presentation of data, users will want new and improved ways to tell the story. Whether you are presenting in a staff meeting, sharing data and reports across teams or talking through a problem, smart data visualization is going to help you make a better decision, because it provides a clear picture of results and ensures that data is not misunderstood or misinterpreted.
In this article, we explore Smart Data Visualization and the concept of a ‘picture is worth a thousand words’ to discover how data visualization can make a real difference in your analytical environment and in supporting decisions.
Once a user has gathered the data they wish to analyze, Smart Data Visualization uses auto-suggestions and recommendations to help you choose the right way to visualize your data and produce reports based on data type, data volume the nature of the data, the patterns and the dimensions. Smart Data Visualization and Visual Analytics allows business users to analyze, share and present information without waiting for assistance from visualization experts or programmers. With augmented data discovery tools, business users can cut through that mountain of data to find those elusive nuggets of information that have the most impact on business results.
By combining cutting-edge technology and machine learning on the backend, with an intuitive user experience on the front end, business users can easily leverage sophisticated tools with suggestions and recommendations on how to personalize data displays to create meaningful views and collaboration. Machine learning provides guidance to determine the visualization technique that will be the best fit for the data business users want to analyze. It allows for better understanding of data, and identifies unusual patterns in data, and achieves the best output and results.
Visual Analytics tools enable users to identify relationships, patterns, trends and opportunities and to explore detailed data with simple drill down and drill through capabilities and make sense of data from all sources, with a guided approach that allows users to identify patterns and trends, and quickly complete analysis with clear results.
The real beauty of Smart Data Visualization is that it is built within an Augmented Analytics environment that is designed for the average business user without advanced technical skills. Users can leverage sophisticated features to get that one picture that will tell the story – all without involving IT or data scientists, so the day-to-day work of decision-making can go forward with confidence and accuracy.
‘Smart data visualization is going to help you make a better decision, because it provides a clear picture of results and ensures that data is not misunderstood or misinterpreted.’
Explore the advantages of Augmented Analytics Products And Services, and Smart Data Visualization. Let us help you implement a solution that will be suitable for your team members and your business results.
Original Post : Smart Data Visualization Tells the Story of Your Business!
If you are a business manager, senior executive, IT professional or analytical professional, you are probably well aware of the emergence of business intelligence solutions, BI tools and augmented analytics for business users. In all likelihood, you have been hearing about these trends in annual conference and industry journals. If your business has not yet adopted such an initiative, it is likely to do so within the next year. But it might surprise you to know that, world renowned technology research firm, Gartner, predicts that ‘By 2022, augmented analytics will be ubiquitous, but only 10% of users will use it to its full potential.’ Given the focus and effort invested in business intelligence and augmented analytics, this prediction is disappointing, but understandable.
All of your business users have a favorite software application – an app they value because it helps them do their job more easily, or helps them get crucial information. These are the applications they have learned and they are used to leveraging them on a day-to-day basis to perform tasks. When you introduce augmented analytics into your business environment, one of the most critical factors is whether you can expect user adoption. Finding and implementing the right augmented analytics solution is just the first step. If you can’t get your users to USE the application, your return on investment (ROI) will be poor and your total cost of ownership (TCO) will be high.
When you tell someone you work in a finance-related position, their eyes might glaze over. They picture you ‘counting beans’. Whether you work in inventory management, purchasing, accounting, enterprise finance or any other related position, your job can seem mysterious (and even boring) to many people. But, yours is the lifeblood of the organization.
No matter your reason for investing in that business application, the investment was meant to improve the business, to make team members more productive, to act as a repository for important business data and to somehow improve the bottom line. But, the effectiveness and success of a software solution depends on more than its features and functionality. Yes, one must consider its ease of use too, but that’s not the point of our discussion today.
What Are the Benefits of Augmented Analytics? Where Do I Start?
Those who know me are probably tired of hearing me talk about the benefits of Augmented Analytics. To them, I say, ‘I am sorry’. I am about to talk about it yet again. The reason is simple. Most businesses are either considering the addition of augmented analytics to democratize data, improve data literacy and create Citizen Data Scientists OR they are still unconvinced and feel that they are just fine. Either way, your business professionals and managers can use a primer on the benefits of augmented analytics, whether it is used to support their decision or to convince the team that augmented analytics should be pursued!
What’s your role? Maybe you are an accounting professional, or a financial manager, or maybe you are a sales manager, someone in charge of purchasing for your business, or the person who manages inventory. No matter your role, if you deal with budget, overspending, supply shortages or any other aspect of the business affecting the budget, funding, spending and revenue, you know how important it is to stay on top of things.
