Building An Analytics Culture In Your Company
Establishing an analytics-driven culture within a business presents something of a “chicken or egg” dilemma. Are short-term objectives key to finding value in business intelligence (BI), or are long-term goals most critical to a successful strategy? In developing BI projects, is it more important to find the data to answer key questions, or start with the data to uncover the right insights? Perhaps most important, what is the source of creativity, and how does it inspire execution? Is a top-down or bottom-up approach more likely to succeed?
In most businesses today, BI is required, and analytics happens anywhere within an organization. The IT department typically manages data aggregation and BI, generally focusing on specific internal clients with external customers in mind. However, the impact of the efforts may not be realized corporate-wide. Individual employees may use end-user tools for business analytics that serve the needs of their team or department. Often, midlevel operational units that roll up from department to division and division to company are ignored, leading to missed opportunities for organizational impact or change.
This neglect of the operational units is both the symptom and the cause of failures to disseminate analytics capabilities throughout an organization. It is the chief obstacle to successfully rallying employees in the consistent and systematic execution of corporate goals.
The challenge in driving data-driven intelligence into different end user communities often lies in a lack of data literacy. There is a sound business case for BI and the development of systems and processes that can draw from many sources to present clean and trusted data. These practices are critical to enabling analytics within business units. To come full circle, the organization must not only present data to a broader audience, but ensure that everyone understands it and can leverage enterprise-relevant data for value in their business unit.
The right tools help put data at the fingertips of everyone in the organization. Even simple functionality, such as a narrative description of what’s on a chart, can help to simplify presentation details, exposing the most important parts. A narrative box might explain if total sales are part of a particular report, what the average sales are per location and how much above or below the norm different results represent. These points can guide the end user to understand the “why” behind the situation illustrated by a report or dashboard.
Another approach is to use state-of-the-art reporting designed for ready access to key categories of information. Infographics can be customized to deliver relevant data points to specific recipients. With these kinds of techniques, organizations can begin to complete the circle. The use of data will explode as a natural integration into the daily life of all employees engaged in any work, making data consumable in the format most relevant to the needs or skill of each individual user.
Mature organizations must address gaps in the use of analytics by operationalizing data.
