How to Integrate Data and Analytics into Every Part of Your Organization
A successful data and analytics (D&A) function encompasses more than a stack of technologies, or a few people isolated on one floor of the building. D&A should be the “pulse” of the organization, incorporated into all key decisions across sales, marketing, supply chain, customer experience and other core functions.
What’s the best way to build effective D&A capabilities? Start by developing a strategy across the entire enterprise that includes a clear understanding of what you hope to accomplish and how success will be measured. One of the major American sports leagues is a good example of an organization that is making the most of its D&A function, applying it in scheduling to reduce expenses and player fatigue. Companies can follow the league’s lead by first understanding that successful D&A starts at the top. Make sure that leadership teams are fully immersed in defining and setting expectations across the entire organization.
Leaders must also recognize that being successful will take courage, because once they embark on the journey, the insights from data analytics will often point to the need for decisions that could require a course correction. Leaders need to be honest with themselves about their willingness to incorporate the insights into their decision making, and to hold themselves and their teams accountable for doing so.
Many conversations about data and analytics (D&A) start by focusing on technology. Having the right tools is critically important, but too often executives overlook or underestimate the significance of the people and organizational components required to build a successful D&A function. When that happens, D&A initiatives can falter — not delivering the insights needed to drive the organization forward or inspiring confidence in the actions required to do so.
The stakes are high, with International Data Corporation estimating that global business investments in D&A will surpass $200 billion a year by 2020. A robust, successful D&A function encompasses more than a stack of technologies, or a few people isolated on one floor of the building. D&A should be the pulse of the organization, incorporated into all key decisions across sales, marketing, supply chain, customer experience, and other core functions.
What’s the best way to build effective D&A capabilities? Start by developing a strategy across the entire enterprise that includes a clear understanding of what you hope to accomplish and how success will be measured.
One of the major American sports leagues is a good example of an organization that is making the most of its D&A function, applying it in scheduling to reduce expenses, for example, reducing the need for teams to fly from city to city for games on back-to-back nights. For the 2016–2017 season, thousands of constraints needed to be taken into account related to travel, player fatigue, ticket revenue, arena availability, and three major television networks. With 30 teams and 1,230 games in a regular season stretching from October into April, trillions of scheduling options were possible. The league used D&A to arrive at a schedule that: Technology aside, keys to success included a clear strategy for building the new scheduling system and a commitment across the organization to seeing it through with an unwavering eye on improving the experiences for everyone involved — including players, fans, referees, and TV networks.
Companies can follow the league’s lead by first understanding that successful D&A starts at the top. Make sure leadership teams are fully immersed in defining and setting expectations across the entire organization. Avoid allowing strategy setting and decision making to occur in organizational silos, which can produce shadow technologies, competing versions of the truth, and data analysis paralysis.
