These days, it seems that every conference I attend, there is a discussion about Citizen Data Scientists. For some of my colleagues, the discussion seems irrelevant or, in some cases, daunting. If you are hesitant to embrace this type of initiative in your business, here are a few Gartner predictions that might convince you to at least consider this crucial shift in business culture and data literacy.
The use of business intelligence and business analytics is growing in every industry, business function and in companies of every size. 48% of small and medium sized business CIOs responding to a Gartner survey revealed that business intelligence (BI), data and analytics is one of the technology areas that will have the largest amount of new or additional spending.
Trust me, I get it! The need for expert, experienced software application developers is constant, and in this rapidly changing technology environment, it is sometimes difficult to sustain cutting-edge IT skills and provide expert resources to accommodate the changing and growing needs of the organization. In order to meet business requirements, an enterprise must maintain a balanced, skilled IT team to enhance and support the business with innovative, high-value, low-cost applications development, and maintenance and support services, backed by timely, proven processes and methodologies.
Everyone over the age of five knows about social networks and social media. No matter which platform you prefer and how you choose to share your thoughts and ideas, you are no doubt engaged in the networking world. When it comes to business intelligence and analytics, there is no reason you can’t employ the same techniques to share, collaborate, create and innovate.
Even if your business results are on target, even if you feel you have a good handle on how to run the business and what your customers want, there is always room for improvement, and the issues that arise can often come out of nowhere. Even the best business managers cannot anticipate and see how every detail of the business might come together to create a challenge OR an opportunity.
I recently spoke to a friend who was grappling with a real problem. She had just come from a staff meeting where senior executives announced their intention to create a business application for sale to the market. Senior management was quite excited about the opportunity but all my friend could see were problems. The idea itself was great but the execution would definitely be an issue. The existing internal IT staff did not have the time, the resources or the skills to get the job done but my friend knew she would have to find a way.
When your business users are asked to take on yet another responsibility, they are likely to balk. Most companies are short-handed and expect more of their team members than ever before. There are a lot of good reasons to initiate data democratization and engage in digital transformation to modernize and improve the enterprise and to improve results. If the business can encourage data sharing and collaboration, it can also improve the shared knowledge of the team and create accountability and empowerment. In so doing, the business can leverage the knowledge and skill of each team member and ensure that every business user is working to their full potential with the all the information they need to solve problems and to capitalize on opportunities.
There are a lot of business intelligence and analytical tools on the market today and if your business has recognized the need to implement this type of solution for self-serve analytics among business users, it is important to understand the advantages of augmented analytics. Advanced analytics benefits are numerous but, when a business chooses augmented analytics tools, it can ensure that its business users have full access to analytical features and sophisticated techniques without having to learn complex systems and without having to acquire data scientist skills. That ease-of-use takes advanced analytics advantages to the next level by democratizing use and allowing for digital transformation and increased data literacy across the enterprise.
When a business engages a technology partner for software development, it is always important to research the experience and skills, to understand the partner’s quality processes and methodologies, to be sure that the agreement includes detailed service levels agreements (SLAs), and to check references but there is one other thing that many businesses forget to check and that is the specifics of delivery models and options.
So you are dreaming of a business intelligence solution that will bring together all the data in your enterprise and make it easily accessible for analysis and now it’s time to look at BI tools and solutions. For starters, you’ll want self-serve business intelligence. You don’t want to have to deal with restrictive dashboards and environments designed by your IT team. Your IT team certainly means well, but they can’t possibly imagine all the ways you’ll want to use the system, so you want something that is flexible enough for YOU to use the way YOU need to use it today – a solution that will accommodate what you will need tomorrow too!
