Leverage Citizen Data Scientists for Business and Business Users

Business and Team Member Benefits of Citizen Data Scientists!

When a business considers the prospect of implementing business intelligence and augmented analytics tools to align objectives and streamline processes and decision-making, the business management and executive team can often see the project as time-consuming and expensive.

In fact, most proposals that include process changes, training and new technology get stalled because:

a. change is hard

b. there is a tendency to say that everything is just fine the way it is

c. the management team believes that the expense is not equal to the value of the transition.

When it comes to BI tools and self-serve analytics, all of these claims can be disproven by results.

‘By providing business users with easy-to-use BI tools and augmented analytics features that produce results and allow them to make the most of their knowledge and time, the organization is more likely to retain its human resource assets and to identify and utilize its team member skills to achieve results, thereby creating a competitive advantage and a more agile, streamlined enterprise.’

In fact, Gartner has predicted that ‘Early adopters of augmented analytics have the potential to realize more strategic and differentiating business benefits from their analytics investments than those who wait until these technologies are widely adopted.’

Results and benefits are proven across the enterprise by businesses that have already adopted business intelligence and augmented analytics.

Minimum Viable Products (MVP) Produces Better Business Start-Up Results

For the organization, these benefits include:

  • Support for data-driven, fact-based decision making
  • Insight and perspective into history, results and trends and patterns for strategy and operational decisions
  • Encouraging collaboration among team members, IT, business analysts and data scientists
  • Business agility and efficiency
  • Leveraging human resource assets and improving productivity
  • Creating a competitive advantage with rapid decision-making and market response
  • Improving and optimizing financial investments, forecasts and predictions

For business users, transitioning to Citizen Data Scientists, the advantages include:

  • Combining professional and industry knowledge with data to achieve accurate results
  • Leveraging simple BI tools and self-serve analytics to receive recommendations and suggestions and make quick, clear decisions
  • Reducing the need for IT and data scientist assistance
  • Collaborating with other business users to create and share data, reports and information
  • Advancing career goals by learning and using tools that combine existing skills with new analytical capabilities
  • Improving data-driven decisions and reducing re-work

By providing business users with easy-to-use BI tools and augmented analytics features that produce results and allow them to make the most of their knowledge and time, the organization is more likely to retain its human resource assets and to identify and utilize its team member skills to achieve results, thereby creating a competitive advantage and a more agile, streamlined enterprise.

‘Gartner has predicted that ‘Early adopters of augmented analytics have the potential to realize more strategic and differentiating business benefits from their analytics investments than those who wait until these technologies are widely adopted.’

If your business wishes to capitalize on the potential of the Citizen Data Scientist approach, it important to work with an IT Partner who can help you define your requirements and strategize for optimal success, providing the augmented analytics tools and knowledge of the industry that is required to position you for success. Get started today with our self-paced FREE Online Citizen Data Scientist course.

Contact Us today to find out how our team can help you to improve business results and increase team collaboration, data literacy, productivity and competitive advantage.

Look to Cross-Tab and Tabular Analytical BI Tools for Clear Results

Cross-Tab and Tabular Reporting Tools Are Foundational!

The evolution of advanced analytics has been rapid and impressive. With features that provide support for business users and help to transition them into Citizen Data Scientists, and the addition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other capabilities like Natural Language Processing (NLP) and search analytics, augmented analytics is suitable for every team member in your organization. It is easy to be impressed with all of the new bells and whistles and these additions certainly do make a user’s life easier and help the organization to analyze and use data in a more meaningful way.

But while we are admiring these new BI tools and analytics features and technologies, we should give equal respect to the bread and butter of the business intelligence (BI) and analytical landscape! Foundational, comprehensive visualization techniques are not only meaningful, they are mandatory.

‘With flexible views and report formats and interactive features and presentation capabilities, your business users, managers, IT team and data scientists can leverage data across disparate data structures and view and present that data with intuitive formats for fact-based decision-making.’

Analytics and business intelligence (BI) tools provide many such options including:

Cross-Tab – Cross-tabulation analysis (or crosstabs), analyzes and categorizes data to reveal the relationship between two or more variables to help you make sense of survey results, reveal actionable tasks, find patterns and correlations. Cross-tab analytics can be used for categorical variables (with independent or dependent variables), for contingency tables, marginal totals, or conditional frequencies, and many other purposes.

Tabular – Tabular visualization facilitates quick comparison of data in a tabular form, marrying data classification with data presentation to reveal measures and averages in a structured format that is easy to manipulate, compare and understand. Tabular analytics can be used for statistical analysis or units of measure among other uses.

According to research at the University of North Carolina (UNC), cross-tab and tabular analytics account for 90% of the analytical techniques used in all research analysis.

A BI reporting tool that enables users to customize their view and approach and is easy to understand and use will make the user more productive and ensure Return on Investment (ROI).

Analytics Can Be Flashy, But Traditional Cross-Tab and Tabular Visualization is Your Bread and Butter

These foundational analytical visualization techniques are easy to understand and use and are suitable for business users and all team members. When you choose a Business Intelligence reporting tool that enables report, template and document design and configuration and supports preprinted fixed formats too. With flexible views and report formats and interactive features and presentation capabilities, your business users, managers, IT team and data scientists can leverage data across disparate data structures and view and present that data with intuitive formats for fact-based decision-making. IT team members or consultants can leverage a simple, basic programming or scripting environment to define format templates and use data from Datasets and objects to produce stunning pixel perfect reports. Users can preview reports, export data to PDF files and share documents and reports via email at predefined frequency using delivery and publishing agents.

‘While we are admiring new BI tools, features and technologies, we should give equal respect to the bread and butter of the business intelligence (BI) and analytical landscape! Foundational, comprehensive visualization techniques are not only meaningful, they are mandatory.’

To learn more about Traditional BI Tools And Visualization Techniques and the promise of augmented analytics and Advanced Reporting Tools, contact us now. Find out how to  ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) results, gain a competitive market advantage, and enable user adoption, read our free White Paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI.’ Explore The Benefits of our Augmented Analytics And BI ToolsContact Us. Keep pace with changing enterprise needs and support business agility. Let us help you realize your business goals and objectives with fact-based information, and flexible, scalable technology solutions that will support Citizen Data Scientist initiatives, and improved data literacy and data democratization.

Smarten Support Portal Updates – June – 2025!

Mobile BI is Not Just Nice to Have – It’s Crucial!

Improve Results, Precision and User Adoption with Mobile BI

Two things are true today. The first is that we are a mobile society, tied to our devices, carrying them with us everywhere to stay connected, to get information and to communicate. The second true thing is that we are busier than ever and, if we are to keep up, we must find ways to be more productive. The advent of technology and the rapid pace of change has created a situation where there is always more to do than we have time to do!

When it comes to business, both of these true things are even truer! If we are a business owner or manager we know that we never have enough resources or staff and that the invaluable knowledge of our employees and professionals must be leveraged and optimized if we are to succeed. We also know that most companies today have team and staff members who are not working within the walls of a manufacturing plant or an office. Even in a retail business, our team members are often working after hours or they are on the road visiting suppliers or buyers.

That’s where mobile business intelligence (BI) comes in! Every business needs analytics and data to understand where the business is today, where it is going and what we need to do to keep the business moving on the path to success. But, information is everywhere and it can be difficult to gather it and make sense of it and use it to make decisions.

‘A mobile business intelligence (BI) app should not short change your users with restrictive formats or views.’

By integrating enterprise data and making it available in an easy-to-use mobile interface, you can allow every user in the enterprise to use data in a way that is meaningful to them and to their tasks and decisions and if that analytical solution is available on a mobile device, we enable them to be productive in airports, hotels, at client or supplier offices and while working at home.

Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) Provides Critical Support for Business Growth and User Adoption

According to a recent study by Mordor Intelligence, the fastest growing mobile BI market is in the Asia Pacific region and the largest market is in the United States.

If you are interested in expanding your business intelligence solution to a mobile environment, or in acquiring BI tools for your team, the right Mobile BI solution will:

  • Provide a native application with a seamless user interface that supports a great user experience (Ux) for ALL users (even those with average technical skills)
  • Be available for iOS and Android
  • Be suitable for self-serve analytics to encourage user adoption
  • Be easy to deploy and use
  • Provide good support
  • Be affordable
  • Provide support for data democratization and improved data literacy
  • Provide suitable return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO)

A mobile business intelligence (BI) app should not short change your users with restrictive formats or views. Look for a solution with:

  • Clear, flexible data visualization
  • Dynamic charts and graphs
  • Supportive dashboards and clear reports
  • Clickless analytics that are easy to use
  • Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) analytics that are intuitive and easy

‘By integrating enterprise data and making it available in an easy-to-use mobile interface, we allow every user in the enterprise to use data in a way that is meaningful to them and to their tasks and decisions.’

If you want to support your business user team and provide a foundation for BI tools that will better serve your team and your customers, explore Smarten Mobile BI benefits and features, with powerful functionality and access for your business users including out-of-the-box Mobile BI and advanced analytics for every team member. For more information on Mobile BI and Augmented Analytics, read our article, ‘Mobile BI Business Use Provides Real Advantages,’ and take a moment to watch and listen to this informative webinar, ‘Smarten Mobile BI.’

How Does Low-Code, No-Code Development Support BI Tools?

BI Tools with Low Code No Code Development Provide Flexibility

What is Low-Code, No-Code development? Is it important for your business to understand its value and how it can be used in business intelligence? Well, if you are planning to upgrade your BI tools or invest in business intelligence (BI) for the first time, it is important for you to understand the components and how the composition of your BI tools can establish a solid foundation for growth and provide flexibility for change.

Low-code and no-code application development are methodologies for faster and simpler software development. The techniques use platforms and software to minimize code and enable drag and drop and other techniques to simplify and speed the development process.

‘The LCNC approach allows business intelligence vendors to create, configure, integrate, deploy and support BI tools at a lower cost, reducing the cost of the solution and ensuring that your team can transition to a Citizen Data Scientist role.’

According to a recent study:

  • No-code and low-code platforms help reduce app development time by 90%.
  • 70% of new business applications will use low-code/no-code technologies by 2025.
  • Compared to conventional app-building platforms, no-code solutions consume 70% fewer resources.
  • Gartner forecasts that low-code adoption will be so widespread that 75% of the software solutions built around the globe will be made with the help of such tools.
Low-Code, No-Code (LCNC) Adds Flexibility to Business Intelligence Solutions

So, why would this be important to YOUR business?

  • First, the flexibility and speed provided by Low-Code, No-Code (LCNC) development will allow your vendor of choice to quickly and easily respond to the market and provide new features and functionality.
  • Secondly, the ease of development allows developers to customize and personalize to respond to your needs.

When Low Code and No Code techniques are applied to business intelligence and augmented analytics solution development, there are numerous advantages. Here are just a few:

Application Development – The low-code, no-code approach reduces the time involved in application development, providing features and functionality to support user needs, supporting data visualization, reporting and a seamless user experience (Ux).

Solution Flexibility – LCNC development allows the development team to achieve flexible data construction and to easily integrate data from disparate data sources, producing an intuitive dashboard view and reports for users, so your team can use advanced analytics without advanced technology skills. Your enterprise can enjoy personalized dashboards and views that are suitable for the team, department, division, etc.

Building for the Future – Low code no code development allows the vendor development team to produce rapid results and to build in flexibility for the future, so BI software can keep pace with the market, with business needs and with your users. This approach allows the development team to support analytics, reporting requirements, data visualization, and data integration and modeling.

Productivity and Resources – Because this approach supports rapid development and creates a responsive environment, business owners and managers can work with the vendor and development team to address new business requirements, support team members with easy-to-use tools and anticipate changes in their competitive landscape with features and functionality that support workflow, business processes and user productivity.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI) – The LCNC approach allows business intelligence vendors to create, configure, integrate, deploy and support BI tools at a lower cost, reducing the cost of the solution and ensuring that your team can transition to a Citizen Data Scientist role, thereby holding costs for data scientists, etc. The BI tools included in the technology stack will be affordable and provide a solid foundation for cost-effective growth.

‘The  flexibility and speed provided by Low-Code, No-Code (LCNC) development will allow your vendor of choice to quickly and easily respond to the market and provide new features and functionality.’

What is Low-Code, No-Code development? Is it important for your business to understand its value and how it can be used in business intelligence? Well, if you are planning to upgrade your BI tools or invest in business intelligence (BI) for the first time, it is important for you to understand the components and how the composition of your BI tools can establish a solid foundation for growth and provide flexibility for change.

To learn more about the use of Low-Code/No-Code Development in augmented analytics and business intelligence tools, explore our free article, ‘Low-Code, No-Code In Analytics.’

Find out how to  ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) results, gain a competitive market advantage, and enable user adoption, read our free White Paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI.’ Explore The Benefits of our Augmented Analytics And BI ToolsContact Us. Keep pace with changing enterprise needs and support business agility. Let us help you realize your business goals and objectives with fact-based information, and flexible, scalable technology solutions that will support Citizen Data Scientist initiatives, and improved data literacy and data democratization.

White Paper – The Potential of the Citizen Data Scientist Approach and Augmented Analytics

White Paper – The Potential of the Citizen Data Scientist Approach and Augmented Analytics

Understanding the role of a Citizen Data Scientist and the opportunities provided by this approach is the first step in leveraging the Citizen Data Scientist approach. Engaging a vendor and choosing the right Augmented Analytics Business Intelligence tools, services, training and deployment will ensure success. The prospect of transforming business users into Citizen Data Scientists may seem daunting but, with the appropriate planning and support, and the appropriate Augmented Analytics solution, the initiative can be extremely successful.

Analytics and Citizen Data Scientists Ensure Business Advantage

Fact-Based Analytics and Citizen Data Scientists = Results

So, you want your business users to embrace and use analytics? You want your business to enjoy the benefits of fact-based decision making? You want your business to use the tools of business intelligence to improve market presence, customer satisfaction and team productivity and collaboration?

‘Whether you are trying to solve a business problem, get to the heart of that problem, find a business opportunity, predict the need for resources, new products or locations or understanding changes in your customer buying behavior, you don’t have time to learn complex tools or take training in analytics.’

Gartner has predicted that, ‘a scarcity of data scientists will no longer hinder the adoption of data science and machine learning in organizations.’ And that is the good news. But, if the business is to leverage the potential of analytics within the organization, it must choose the right analytics tools to ensure that business users will adopt analytics in day-to-day tasks.

If your enterprise wishes to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists and use augmented analytics to gain a competitive advantage, it must provide easy-to-use tools that do NOT require team members to be business analysts or IT professionals – tools that allow users to quickly gather data using self-serve data preparation, using data integrated from disparate data repositories with smart data visualization to view, format and share results that are clear, concise and actionable.

The business market is more competitive than ever and in today’s environment it isn’t enough to simply analyze historical data. To make good business decisions, adjust strategies and forecast and plan, you must use that historical data to plan for the future.

Businesses that can gather data from disparate sources and use historical data to understand trends and patterns and forecast for the future can establish and sustain a competitive advantage and plan more effectively and accurately, avoiding missteps in the market and costly mistakes.

If your business wishes to sustain a competitive advantage, if you as a user wish to advance in your career and build your value to the organization, it is incumbent upon you to embrace the trend of data democratization, data literacy and self-serve, augmented analytics.

For Competitive Advantage, Enable Citizen Data Scientists with Augmented Analytics

Today, augmented analytics and smart data discovery make it easier for business users, data scientists, IT staff and the organization to benefit from fact-based decision-making, collaboration, data literacy and the ability to easily, gather, integrate and analyze data.

Whether you are trying to solve a business problem, get to the heart of that problem, find a business opportunity, predict the need for resources, new products or locations or understanding changes in your customer buying behavior, you don’t have time to learn complex tools or take training in analytics.

What you need are apps and solutions that allow you to ask easy questions in your own words and receive guidance and recommendations on how to best visualize and present your data and what techniques to use to gain the most insight.

Use a simple low-code, no-code analytics platform and augmented analytics and BI tools designed for business users with real-world business cases to find answers and solve problems. You can untangle quality and maintenance issues, refine customer targeting and marketing optimization, make appropriate financial investment decisions, and even use external data to analyze trends and patterns and make forecasts and predictions, helping users and the business to achieve success in industries and businesses like retail, pharmacy and wellness, insurance, manufacturing, government and public sector, utilities, and other industries.

‘If your enterprise wishes to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists and use augmented analytics to gain a competitive advantage, it must provide easy-to-use tools that do NOT require team members to be business analysts or IT professionals.’

To find out more about how to ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) results, gain a competitive market advantage, and enable user adoption, read our free White Paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI.’ Explore The Benefits of our Augmented Analytics And BI ToolsContact Us. Keep pace with changing enterprise needs and support business agility. Let us help you realize your business goals and objectives with fact-based information, and flexible, scalable technology solutions that will support Citizen Data Scientist initiatives, and improved data literacy and data democratization.

Smarten Support Portal Updates – April – 2025!

BI Tools and Augmented Analytics That Ensure User Adoption and ROI

Ensure ROI, TCO and User Adoption with the Right BI Tools

When a business sets out to implement BI tools or self-serve augmented analytics, it must consider the entire technology landscape of the business, the expectations of end-users, the cost of the solution, how easily it can be upgraded and integrated and, well…so much more!

 

‘To ensure user adoption and achieve the ROI and TCO the business deserves, take the time to do the work. Develop requirements, consider the features and functionality of a solution and compare those to your use cases and your user expectations.’

 

Management teams do not take kindly to poor Return on Investment (ROI ) or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and if the business has had difficult projects in the past, the next time a software solution is presented for approval, senior managers will remember the challenges and failures of the past!

 

Still, when you are attempting to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists, there is bound to be some pushback from users and that pushback, combined with senior management concerns can and WILL bring your project to its knees if you do not anticipate and address these concerns.

 

Here are some statistics that will help you to understand the issues faced by businesses in implementing BI tools and analytics:
  • The global BI adoption rate is 26%
  • On average, businesses use at least four different BI tools
  • 97% of the data gathered by businesses is not used
  • 74% of employees express dissatisfaction and are overwhelmed when working with business data

 

In order to assure successful deployment, user adoption, improved Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), the business should include detailed requirements in its solution selection. When choosing a BI tool and augmented analytics solution for your business, one of the most crucial concerns is the features and functionality of the prospective solution and how this solution will meet user and organizational needs. When planning for deployment of BI tools and augmented analytics, the business should take the time to work through a process, ensuring that it has considered what users need and want to ensure user adoption and the ease-of-use and features the solution will provide.
To Achieve User Adoption, ROI and TCO Goals, Select the RIGHT BI Tools and Augmented Analytics
It is important to remember that there are also specific features a business should consider, like embedded BI and easy-to-employ Integration APIs, that will assure user adoption and appropriate ROI and TCO. These considerations will affect how well the solution is received, whether users will adopt it and be satisfied with the selection, and how the investment will perform when considering total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) when compared to other possible uses of the same investment funding.

 

With this foundation of documented features, services, skills and capabilities, the business can implement, manage, upgrade and support Business Intelligence and Augmented Analytics capacity and growth within the organization.

 

‘When you are attempting to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists, there is bound to be some pushback from users and that pushback, combined with senior management concerns can and WILL bring your project to its knees if you do not anticipate and address these concerns.’

 

To ensure user adoption and achieve the ROI and TCO the business deserves, take the time to do the work. Develop requirements, consider the features and functionality of a solution and compare those to your use cases and your user expectations. INVOLVE your users and middle managers in planning to understand how and when to deploy the tools and how to support your business users as you transition them into Citizen Data Scientists.

 

To find out more about how to ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) results, and enable user adoption, read our free White Paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI.’ To find out more about our Augmented Analytics And BI ToolsContact Us. Keep pace with changing enterprise needs and support business agility. Let us help you realize your business goals and objectives with fact-based information, and flexible, scalable technology solutions that will support Citizen Data Scientist initiatives, and improved data literacy and data democratization.

 

Original Post : BI Tools and Augmented Analytics That Ensure User Adoption and ROI!

Case Study : Augmented Analytics Solution for India Powertrain and Sustainable Solutions Engineering Company!

Augmented Analytics Solution for India Powertrain and Sustainable Solutions Engineering Company

The Client is a prominent engineering company in India, renowned for its extensive history. For over 160 years the Client has delivered bespoke design engineering and precision manufacturing solutions, specializing in enabling seamless motion across industries that include automotive, agriculture, marine, light construction, firefighting, and railways. The Client provides cutting-edge power solutions for critical installations and diverse applications, with expertise in fuel-agnostic engines and precision manufacturing of key engine components. It has expanded offerings in electric power train for mobility and other industrial power applications and a strengthening position in the motion control solutions space with strategic acquisitions, empowering progress across multiple sectors. The Client business is publicly traded on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and a robust distribution network including 200 distributors, 8000 retail stores and 20,000 mechanics across India.