Almost three fourths (72%) of executives from companies like American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and Ford have admitted that they are not where they want to be with their efforts towards data democratization. Yet they recognize there is a cultural change needed to make data more accessible to more of their organization. An organization that uses data effectively has better insights into critical business levers such as supply chain planning, future real estate decisions, and revenue stream projections – all of which are critical in normal times and even more so during a global pandemic. But a cultural shift towards data democracy is dependent on matching business teams’ ingenuity and curiosity with easy to use tools for data access.
Traditional business intelligence (BI) relies on IT or a data team to uncover insights from data and deliver them to business teams. This model creates barriers between the data and the decision makers who need more efficient access in order to drive better outcomes every day. Team members that don’t have data engineering backgrounds or knowledge of SQL can be stuck having to submit requests and wait for a report, resulting in potential lost revenue, loss of productivity and lack of engagement in the process. The true Benefits of Self service analytics and business intelligence (A&BI) available today, by contrast, requires no coding expertise — a data analysis software makes it simple to run queries and create reports without writing code or waiting for weeks for their number to come up in the queue.
The following are four benefits that highlight how self-service A&BI can create the cultural change needed to push organizations into the data future they need to embrace in order to remain competitive.
A Self-Service Analytics &BI strategy allows everyone to explore data
The real power of self-service A&BI is that it democratizes data. Armed with the data skills that come from no code data tools, business users can leverage their domain expertise when exploring data for answers to important questions. They can then ask followup questions triggered by the initial search, diving in for deeper insights that can make the difference between an effective decision or one that misses the mark entirely.
Self-service A&BI tools create a culture of curiosity where business users are encouraged to ask questions and uncover why trends or problems are happening, what’s causing certain patterns, and which actions are correlated with which events.
Self-service A&BI enables better, faster decision-making
Decisions based on incomplete data can lead to serious mistakes. A Bain and Company report indicates a 95% correlation between companies that excel at making key decisions and those with top-tier financial results. The survey results are timeless and relevant in the age of data. With such a high correlation between financial success and accurate decision making, data can be the missing quotient to refined decision making throughout the organization.
When business users can get deeper-dive answers quickly, they can base decisions on the full picture. And with the confidence that they’re seeing all the data affecting a decision, they can move more quickly. Speed also comes as a result of the real-time nature of self-service A&BI. People can run queries and create reports when they need them, rather than having to wait on the data team to get to their request (one of many in the queue).
The ability to move fast allows business users to take advantage of time-sensitive opportunities. Consider today’s changed business climate with a global pandemic impacting every aspect of how we do business. Data’s ability to help companies pivot in times of stress are among its critical benefits. It enables them to uncover sources of problems before they grow and wreak havoc. Problems ranging from product issues to customer service challenges can cost companies significantly if they aren’t dealt with in a timely manner. And problems cannot be resolved if no one knows what’s causing them – or that they’re even happening.
Self-service A&BI frees up IT staff and data teams to work on other projects
Data experts possess valuable skills and experience that should be dedicated to important projects. When they spend all their time rushing out ad-hoc reports, they don’t have the ability to focus on non-urgent-but-just-as-important work. Here are just a few ways companies can better utilize IT staff and data teams.
Teach data skills to business users — The old maxim “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” is apropos here. When data teams encourage data literacy and teach domain experts vital skills, they empower them to do this work on their own.
Lend expertise to complex queries — Sometimes business users will need answers that are difficult to get to. They require complex queries and special knowledge. Data experts can apply their expertise to these queries.
Answer big-picture questions — Ad-hoc reports are typically requested by business users trying to answer questions relevant to their particular business unit. But companies also need answers to the big-picture questions that affect operations as a whole. The answers to these big-picture questions will drive company strategy in important areas.
Perform predictive data analysis — Insights from the past inform the future. Companies need consistent and reliable predictive data analysis. These projects take time, and because they’re not “urgent,” they often get relegated to the back burner when data teams are inundated with ad -hoc reporting requests.
Self-service A&BI enables collaboration
There’s a reason that humanity began experiencing a snowball of advances in technology when we started coming together from our small villages to form larger cities. As people share thoughts, and as ideas bump up against one another, insights expand far beyond what they would have otherwise. The same is true in organizations. Collaboration is another primary benefit of self-service A&BI. When users from different business units come together and share, several things happen:
They’re able to see the big picture. Collaboration allows teams to see what surrounds their individual pieces, giving them context. And the ability to see context provides greater accuracy. Problems are more easily solved when addressed holistically. Without the full picture, it takes longer to solve problems. When the bottom line hinges on speed in problem-solving, the ability to move quickly is invaluable.
Collaboration leads to stronger teams. At a time when company culture serves a valuable business asset, the ability to build a strong team is the holy grail. People become more invested as they collaborate and see how their individual contributions have an impact on a broader scale. Teams thrive when members share and elevate each others’ work. This is how compound interest with data is built and collective intelligence expands. Insights are originally drawn from the principal, but then the team draws insights from those insights. These compound insights aren’t just limited to teams. With the right tools, there’s no limit to how much it can grow— organization-wide or even with external partners.
The many benefits of self-service A&BI give companies the ability to better utilize the skills and experience of the people throughout the organization. In these unprecedented times when global health issues are adding new and unforeseen pressures to businesses, data can be a safety net helping organizations find answers when there is so much uncharted territory ahead. When people are freed to do what they do best, companies can utilize the collective talents of their organizations towards common solutions and come one step closer to the data culture they seek for the long term.
Daniel Codella is a Data Evangelist for Sigma Computing. Sigma is the first enterprise-ready cloud business intelligence and analytics (A&BI) solution designed to run natively inside cloud data warehouses (CDWs). Providing live, guided access to CDWs, Sigma maximizes their value, eliminates the need to change data models as new questions arise, and transforms A&BI into an iterative process. The Sigma Spreadsheet empowers anyone to analyze data – without code or extracts – and make insight-driven decisions quickly, freeing data experts to focus on more innovative, fulfilling initiatives. Sigma Computing powers a community-driven approach to A&BI and delivers on the self-service promise.
By Daniel Codella, Data Evangelist