Every consumer and business user loves the new world of search and query. Google-type searches offer the ability to ask a question in simple form, and receive an answer you can understand. You don’t have to be a data scientist, a rocket scientist, a statistician or a data guru to perform the search or to understand the results!
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!
Technology research and consulting firm, Gartner, predicts that, ‘By 2023, data literacy will become an explicit and necessary driver of business value, demonstrated by its formal inclusion in over 80% of data and analytics strategies and change management programs.’
Business users are business professionals who have expertise in an industry or market arena or perform a function to support the ongoing operation of the business – professionals who may be front line workers on a production line, finance professionals, sales representatives, non-profit office workers, medical researchers, middle managers, regional managers for retail chains, transportation dispatchers or…well, you get the idea. These team members know their job and they do it well. But, they probably don’t have the technical skills to write a SQL query, or to filter out the columns and fields for an analytical search in order to get the results they need to make a decision.
If your business is considering an advanced analytics solution, your IT and management team has probably already done some research and concluded that the concept of augmented analytics designed to support business users is the right way to go. To democratize data, improve data literacy and transition business users to the Citizen Data Scientist role, the business must select the right solution and plan for success.
Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are often challenged to satisfy all the roles and responsibilities in the organization and most team members wear more than one hat. That feeling of being overstretched is typical of growing businesses and, in an increasingly competitive market with businesses fighting for skilled resources, it is difficult to meet budget and scheduling goals and get it all done.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) may not be a term that everyone is familiar with but all consumers and business users are certainly aware of its power. You use natural language processing every day when you perform a search in Google using questions written in the same way one would speak or write to another person. Whether you know it or not, you are using NLP to process, interpret and return results that meet your criteria.
What is Natural Language Processing (NLP)?
Natural Language Processing utilizes artificial intelligence to translate computer code and language into real world, human language. While the goal is to simplify human interaction with computers, NLP is a complex mix of computational linguistics and computer science. When a business is considering an augmented analytics solution that leverages natural language processing, it need not concern itself with the complicated underpinning of code and design, but should rather consider what NLP can do for its users and for its business results.
The focus of this article is on Data Democratization within the business enterprise, but the concepts and approaches involved in implementing this type of initiative are worth considering for any kind of major change within an organization.
Perspective is everything. You can stare at numbers and columns all day and never see the one nugget of information that will give you insight and help you solve a problem or find that one opportunity to drive the business to the next level. When you and your business users can leverage augmented analytics tools, without worrying about complex algorithms or writing code or designing reports, you can find those elusive nuggets of information and use them to improve your business results.
