Business Intelligence and analytics (BI&A) is a top organizational priority, as data allows smart companies to quickly assess market conditions and outperform competitors. However by 2020, only 50 percent of chief analytics officers (CAOs) will have successfully created a narrative to respond to rapid change and link financial objectives to BI&A initiatives and investments. Additionally, 40 percent of enterprises’ net-new investment will be in BI&A.
Given the myriad of data that organizations must analyze, BI&A can be viewed as a daunting task that takes precious time from leadership teams to focus on data already collected and not on current deliverables. Organizations increasingly recognize that the goal of analytics must move beyond internal operational efficiency and effectiveness to being core how the business delivers value to its customers.
Leading up to the Gartner Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit, we asked  Rita L. Sallam, research vice president for Gartner, for her insight on how to successfully develop a data analytics program.
Q: Businesses embracing bimodal IT want to do more with their data, and do it faster, but they are often encumbered by traditional views of information management. What are some of the key approaches for teams to utilize as bimodal has become a new area of focus for analytics within organizations? A: A key theme of the conference will be the exploration of ways to empower leadership across the organization to build, access and leverage the analytics they need to improve their business and realize benefits without introducing risk. The bimodal approach includes distributing data from many sources, including from outside of the enterprise and making it accessible to ensure a material, yet trusted, business impact.
First, business leaders need to create cohesive teams that enable, rather than control, individual users by realigning roles and responsibilities.
