Friday, June 5, 2015

Power to the People | New age software tools are bringing the power of analytics to everyone in the organisation


With disruptive technologies like cloud, mobility, social and analytics coming to the fore in the last few years, the various aspects of running a successful business have undergone a change. The power that technology can bring to enterprises is huge, and it is transforming the roles of people within the organisation.With data forming the nucleus of these disruptions, providing insights needed to create business value, the importance of using data effectively and in a timely manner is on an upswing. New age tools are bringing about a shift where the power of analytics is moving from data scientists to each and every person in the organization. This shift in power will transform businesses as follows:

1. Conversations with data will replace static dashboards

Data is now accessible enough to be the backbone of a conversation. Meetings can become more engaging as people explore data together rather than plod through a set of slides and take down actions for later. This collaboration will enable organisations to get more insight from their data and meetings and will result in concrete, well-thoughtout decisions rather than action items to be taken for later follow ups.

2.Analytic competencies will emerge across the organisation

Today's data analyst may be an operations manager, a supply chain executive or even a salesperson.While there will still be data analysts and data scientists for the heavy lifting, sophisticated data analysis will trickle into day-to-day activities.The days are coming very soon, when data analysis will happen at the business user level, removing the need for `report writers' and developers for creating insights from your data.

3. Self-service analytics spawns new data governance practices

Just as the business intelligence landscape has transformed from static reporting to interactive, self-service data, governance too must transform. Locking down all enterprise data won't work any longer--nor will the approach of doing away with any process at all.Corporates will investigate what governance means in a world of self-service analytics.Remember the days when Internet access was restricted in organisations? Today it is a key tool for any job.

4. Marketers and sellers turn social intelligence into smarter strategies

Tracking conversations in social media will let companies find out when a topic is starting to trend and what their customers are talking about. Their competitors will think they have an uncanny ability to see into the future. The jobs of marketers will become like physicians where they help a patient by simply checking their pulse rate and blood pressure. They would be able to understand small changes in the market by simply recognising developing trends through social media.

5. Analytics solutions must integrate with other tools in order to become the standard.

Organisations are losing patience with multiple logins and clunky processes to move and manage data. We'll now see more organisations adopting systems like single-sign on, and less room for applications that don't play well in a larger ecosystem. People will no longer accept manual integration and data quality efforts. Rapid integration leveraging simple interfaces is going to become the standard.

6. Cloud analytics isn't just for cloud data anymore.

Companies will begin to choose the cloud when it makes sense for their business case, not because the data is there. This will be done in accordance with the normal security and IT protocols that are required to be maintained within organisations.

7. Data and journalism complete their merge.

The arrival on the scene of VOX and continued ascendance of sites like fivethirtyeight.com will force more newsrooms to integrate data analytics into their online presence. Readers will no longer be satisfied with just text. Interactive charts and guided stories becoming more vital for the mobile generation, and an important pre-election year in the US will accelerate people's taste for data. This trend will spill over from the public sphere to companies, encouraging those that are lagging in analytics to get with the times.

8. Mobile analytics mature.

Workers are spending less time at their desks. But that doesn't mean they should be less informed by data. Mobile solutions for many analytics emerged years ago and are finally reaching a level of maturity that means that mobile workers really can do light analysis from the road. And the emphasis on mobile has forced vendors to offer more natural and intuitive interfaces across the board.

9. Deeper analytics capabilities become accessible to non-experts

Advances in graphical, intuitive modelling will mean that business users can begin to use predictive analytics without the need for extensive expert consultation or scripting. As self-service analytics becomes more mainstream, more advanced analytics such as basic forecasting will become a more common -and less painful -activity. Strong products will allow self-service modelling and add intuitive feedback that gives users enough information to understand the pitfalls of their models.

10. Analytics will mature into a social movement.

People use products they enjoy using, so more adoption will happen with products that are easy to use. Analytics is no dif ferent and users will gravitate towards those technologies that will enable “frictionless analytics“. Users will want to engage and learn with other users, inside and outside their company and each successful user will spawn more adoption. Companies whose products empower are already seeing their communities flourish. The beauty of this social movement is that it will make our communities much more aware of the facts and decision-making will be much more accurate and effective.

Data forms the backbone of businesses today, and for businesses to be able to stay relevant with their customers, it is paramount to be able to drive this data to make sense to decision makers in real-time. The ability for businesses to be able to make quick decisions will determine how they transform the market place, staying ahead of competition. CD The author is Country Manager, Tableau Software

Source | Economic Times – Corporate Dossier | 5 June 2015

Regards

Pralhad Jadhav
Khaitan & Co


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