Tag: Augmented Analytics

What Citizen Data Scientists DO NOT Need in Augmented Analytics

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March 13, 2024

If you are an IT professional, a business manager or an executive, you have probably been following the progress of the Citizen Data Scientist movement. For a number of years, Gartner and other technology research and analysis firms have predicted and monitored the growth of this phenomenon.

In fact, Gartner predicted that, ‘…40% of data science tasks will be automated, resulting in increased productivity and broader usage by citizen data scientists.’

So, how is it going? It’s actually going quite well.

However, it is worth noting that some businesses have not had the success they expected when implementing a Citizen Data Scientist approach. One of the primary reasons for falling short of results is to set inappropriate expectations regarding the role of Citizen Data Scientists vs. Data Scientists within the organization.

As the Citizen Data Scientist approach gained momentum, businesses seemed to develop an expectation that Citizen Data Scientists could replace Data Scientists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Augmented Analytics and Citizen Data Scientists are not meant to replace refined data modeling or the role of Data Scientists, but rather can supplement and support analytics across the enterprise. The enterprise should not discount the value of strategic data analytics and its place in the organization but rather should see augmented analytics and Citizen Data Scientists as a way to drive fact-based decisions and provide clarity and data-driven actions across the enterprise.

The fact is that there is a place for Citizen Data Scientists within your business, AND a place for Data Scientists and the strategic use of their skills.

What Citizen Data Scientists DO NOT Need in Augmented Analytics

If you want your Citizen Data Scientist initiative to succeed, and you wish to achieve data democratization and data literacy, you must understand how augmented analytics should be used to support business users and organizational objectives. So, let’s dive in and explore this issue further.

AUGMENTED ANALYTICS SOLUTIONS

When selecting an augmented analytics solution, your enterprise must choose tools that are designed specifically for business users with average technology and analytical skills. Easy-to-use, intuitive tools will ensure user adoption. If you choose business intelligence or advanced analytics tools that are meant to data scientists, IT professionals or business analysts, you are setting your team up to fail. These tools are focused on the needs of Data Scientists. The tools are powerful and can produce undeniable value in the right hands, but they are not designed for your business professionals. To use these tools, users must manually gather and prepare data, scrubbing, cleaning, etc., and then write complex queries and use complicated algorithms and analytical techniques. Users must be expert in R programming or in Python or other scripting and programming languages. In short, this kind of software, app or solution is not for the feint of heart, and it’s certainly not suitable for a Citizen Data Scientist.

The right business user solution is an augmented analytics should be designed with all the tools a business user needs to get swift, dependable results.

  • Self-Serve Data Preparation
  • Assisted Predictive Modeling
  • Smart Data Visualization
  • Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Clickless Search Analytics

EXPECTATIONS AND RESULTS

Once you have chosen the right augmented analytics solution, you must establish appropriate expectations.

Optimize Citizen Data Scientists And Data Scientists

MANAGERS AND EXECUTIVES SHOULD NOT EXPECT CITIZEN DATA SCIENTISTS TO BE DATA SCIENTISTS

That is not the purpose of this strategy. The purpose of a Citizen Data Scientist approach is to give your team members tools that will allow them to discover trends and patterns, and to gain insight into what is working and what is not working in their current process, workflow and in their day-to-day activities. If and when an issue is identified that will require adapting a strategy or a major goal or objective, the enterprise must have a process in place that will allow a team member to refer her/his research to a Data Scientist, IT team member or other analytical professional, where the initial analysis will be refined and studied for use in strategic goals. When a Citizen Data Scientist uses augmented analytics, they should not be expected to perform complex modeling or to establish predictive models that will be rolled out in production mode or dictate a new strategy.

CITIZEN DATA SCIENTISTS SHOULD FOCUS ON HYPOTHESIS AND PROTOTYPING

If a business user/Citizen Data Scientist discovers an issue or an opportunity, that user can explore the issue, look for relationships among the variables and factors that affect success and failure, develop an understanding of the challenge or the possibilities for product bundling, changing a marketing campaign, etc., and then share and collaborate with the team to further analyze and discuss the issues. It is this day-to-day access to analytics and clear data that will allow business users to make fact-based decisions and to build an understanding of data and analytics and how the information contained in data repositories and software systems can be integrated and analyzed to gain more clarity and to provide real metrics and measurements, so decisions are based on facts, rather than guesswork and opinion.

Role – Day-to-day business decisions, team collaboration and data sharing.

Benefits – Improved team collaboration, improved data literacy and perspective, improved business agility, timely decisions.

DATA SCIENTISTS SHOULD FOCUS ON STRATEGIC GOALS AND DATA REFINEMENT

Most organizations cannot afford a team of Data Scientists and, even if they could, they do not want those professionals pulled away from crucial, strategic focus by day-to-day requests and projects that have short-term outcomes and importance. Rather than trying to replace Data Scientists within the business, the enterprise can optimize their time and reduce the need to hire more resources, by improving focus and enabling a workflow that allows them to concentrate on those areas that will reap the most benefit to the organization.

Role – Analyze and refine data for 100% accuracy and strategic use, act as expert, statistical expert.

Benefits – Focus on strategic issues with fewer day-to-day requests, collaborate on projects that require data refinement for 100% accuracy, focus on mature modeling requirements.

When an organization sets out to leverage the Citizen Data Scientist approach, it can ensure success by taking the time to plan appropriately AND by establishing appropriate expectations for how and when business users will engage in analytics and the results they can and should produce. When an organization understands the true meaning and purpose of the Citizen Data Scientist role, it can incorporate this strategy and align business users and Data Scientists to achieve greater collaboration and synergy.

Be sure you choose a vendor with comprehensive augmented analytics features and functionality designed specifically for business users, to support the transition of your business users to Citizen Data Scientists and ensure that your project will succeed. Contact Us to find out how we can help you plan and achieve your goals. It really IS possible!

Original Post: What Citizen Data Scientists DO NOT Need in Augmented Analytics!

Citizen Data Scientists Need These 3 Things to Succeed!

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March 5, 2024

3 Primary Components for Citizen Data Scientist Success!

The Citizen Data Scientist phenomenon is in full swing and, while the approach has its detractors, the proof is in success, and many organizations are actively succeeding using the Citizen Data Scientist approach.

Gartner has predicted that, in the future ‘…40% of data science tasks will be automated, resulting in increased productivity and broader usage by citizen data scientists.’

‘The enterprise does not expect to hire a legion of data scientists to perform analytics for every day-to-day need within the organization.’

There are many benefits of transitioning business users to a Citizen Data Scientist role, including:

  • Improved data literacy
  • Increased Data Democratization
  • Improved Collaboration
  • Increased Productivity
  • Improved Alignment with Goals and Objectives
  • Optimization of Data Scientist and IT Resources
  • …and more!
3 Keys to Citizen Data Scientist Success

There are many factors and components inherent in the success of a Citizen Data Scientist. If you are a Citizen Data Scientist candidate, there are three primary components of success:

  1. Organizational Commitment and Support – A business cannot just say they are committed to the Citizen Data Scientist approach. It must plan carefully and include a complete review of the current workflow, business processes and technology in order to make the changes required to support the new program. Citizen Data Scientists must be supported with revisions to performance evaluations and promotions. These revisions should encourage and enable the use of augmented analytics and collaboration so that business users are rewarded for acquiring and using new skills.
  2. Appropriate Augmented Analytics Tools – As with any other type of position or job, a Citizen Data Scientist needs the right tools to succeed. Without the right analytics tools, business users cannot make a successful transition to a Citizen Data Scientist role. The enterprise does not expect to hire a legion of data scientists to perform analytics for every day-to-day need within the organization but, if business users are expected to perform analytical activities, they will need easy-to-use tools that are sophisticated enough to achieve results, without requiring complex analytical skills or lengthy training. Augmented Analytics tools that are designed for business users should provide a foundation of machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) so search analytics is as easy as asking a question in a Google-type interface, with features like Smart Data Visualization, Assisted Predictive Modeling and Self-Serve Data Preparation.
  3. Curiosity and the Willingness to Explore – A prospective Citizen Data Scientist should have at least an average technology capability, with above average curiosity and a willingness to learn and collaborate. The ideal candidate should be recognized as someone who interacts well with others, and is willing to mentor others and help them become comfortable with new tools and processes.

‘If you are a Citizen Data Scientist candidate, there are three primary components of success.’

These are just a few of the factors you must consider when implementing a Citizen Data Scientist approach. Business users who are interested in becoming a Citizen Data Scientist must be willing to embrace new technology and tools and working at the leading edge of a new approach to collaboration and decision-making. initiative. Consider engaging an expert for your Citizen Data Scientist. IT consultants with experience and skill in this area can provide crucial support to help you succeed with your Citizen Data Scientist initiative and can provide simple Training Programs to bring your team on board and help them see the value to themselves and to the organization.

Original Post: Citizen Data Scientists Need These 3 Things to Succeed!

Extend Your Business Reach with Mobile BI!

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February 27, 2024

Support Your Team and Achieve Business Results with a Mobile BI Solution!

Gone are the days when every employee in your enterprise was tied to a desk inside the walls of your office building. Today’s team members are working remote, or visiting clients, or on the road, or perhaps they are in the office in a staff meeting and in need of crucial information to make a decision. Whatever the case, your team needs flexible, mobile solutions to do their jobs in today’s high-stakes, competitive environment, and mobile BI is definitely among the solutions they need.

‘If you want to support your business user team, explore mobile augmented analytics and mobile BI, you can add powerful functionality and access for your business users with out-of-the-box Mobile BI.’

Mobile BI solutions provide data for analysis on mobile devices to support objective, fact-based decision-making improve overall business performance.

Mobile BI Offers Numerous Benefits to Users and the Enterprise

According to Mordor Intelligence, ‘The growth in the adoption of mobile BI can be attributed to numerous factors, such as the growing adoption of data analytics, an increase in mobile data generation, proliferation of mobile devices and apps, and the improved efficiency of BI tools.’

There are many benefits to creating a Mobile BI environment:

  • Your users can leverage a native app, with a seamless user interface for a great user experience (Ux)
  • The enterprise can extend the office environment, allowing for swift analysis and decisions from anywhere and improving productivity
  • Mobile BI will encourage user adoption and provide support for BI investments and data democratization and improved data literacy
  • The organization can ensure data security with access rights defined on the server, so security and privacy is ensured at all levels
  • The mobile BI app is supported from anywhere within IT infrastructure –on premises, public or private cloud
  • Business Users have access to dashboards, reports, Clickless Analytics – Google-type Natural Language Processing (NLP) Search functionality

Whether you have an existing business intelligence or augmented analytics platform that you wish to upgrade or change, or you are exploring the potential of augmented analytics for your business user team and want to implement a Mobile BI environment to support your team within and outside the office, you can enjoy the benefits of this approach, with a cost-effective solution that is easy to implement and requires minimum training and roll-out time.

‘Your team needs flexible, mobile solutions to do their jobs in today’s high-stakes, competitive environment, and mobile BI is definitely among the solutions they need.’

If you want to support your  business user team, explore Smarten Mobile Augmented Analytics And Mobile BI, you can add powerful functionality and access for your business users with 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, ‘Understanding The Truth About Mobile BI.’

Original Post: Extend Your Business Reach with Mobile BI!

Does Embedded BI Offer a Business Application Advantage?

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February 22, 2024

Can Embedded BI Make My Software Business More Competitive?

If your business creates software products and applications, you know how competitive the market can be, and you are always looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage. In this article, we discuss the competitive advantages of adding analytics to your product offerings.

‘If you embed analytics within your product or application, you can provide partners, suppliers, vendors and customers with a tool that supports fact-based decisions and metrics within a familiar application.’

Gartner states that embedded BI provides benefits to users when, ‘data analysis occurs within a user’s natural workflow, without the need to toggle to another application.’ When your users enjoy this benefit, your application or product is likely to attract more clients and retain those clients by providing productivity and avoiding user frustration.

Create a Business Advantage: Add Embedded BI to Your App

For example, if you have created a financial application that provides information on investments and services, you can add augmented analytics and embedded BI to your application to allow your users to perform analytics to determine how successful their investment strategy is and where their money is being leveraged. A health or fitness application can also provide analytics to analyze fitness regimens and results, medical results for medications, i.e., blood pressure reduction following a new medication protocol, etc.

Harvard Business Review states that employees spend up to five weeks a year toggling between applications. That’s a lot of wasted time! If you can promote your own application and product with embedded BI, you can offer your end users a seamless experience and allow them to gain insight into data, which gives you a competitive edge and sets you apart from other service providers in the market.

If you embed analytics within your product or application, you can provide partners, suppliers, vendors and customers with a tool that supports fact-based decisions and metrics within a familiar application. These self-serve embedded BI options are suitable for all types of software products and applications, and allow you to integrate dashboards, to monetize data within products and to create a value-added experience for customers. You can drive user adoption and build loyalty using analytical workflow.

Remember that your competitors are always looking for ways to gain an advantage and, when it comes to competitive advantage, nothing is better than customer loyalty. To gain that advantage, you will want to make your end user’s life easier with embedded BI that helps them see and analyze data, optimize time and enable valuable insight so that they can make the right decision, make recommendations and suggestions to solve problems and to capitalize on opportunities.

Providing this information within your popular application helps the user to adapt to their own business needs and will ensure software product adoption with positive enterprise outcomes. These tools are easy-to-use and do not require a data scientist or IT professional. They make analytics easy to use and to understand which your customers will appreciate.

‘Gartner states that embedded BI provides benefits to users when, ‘data analysis occurs within a user’s natural workflow, without the need to toggle to another application.’

You can find out more about the Smarten Embedded BI And Integration APIs solution and add powerful functionality and access to existing ERP, SCM, HRMS, CRM or any other products. Provide analytics capabilities within existing products without major Investment. Your business users and your customers will appreciate the ease-of-use and access and you will gain a competitive advantage. Read our White Paper: ‘Making The Case For Embedded BI And Analytics.’

Original Post: Does Embedded BI Offer a Business Application Advantage?

Case Study : Smarten Augmented Analytics Provides Comprehensive Solution for India’s Largest Jewelry Brand

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February 21, 2024

Smarten Augmented Analytics Provides Comprehensive Solution for India’s Largest Jewelry Brand

The Client is India’s largest omni-channel jewelry brand, and is recognized and renowned by India consumers. The Client has 165 retail stores in 66+ cities across India, as well as a thriving jewelry eCommerce presence online. Its product line includes rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, chains, bangles, bracelets, mangalsutra, and nose pins, as well as 22k (916) and 24k (995) gold coins with certification and BIS Hallmark stamp guarantee. The Client customer base is growing rapidly, and to attract and retain customers, the business provides new designs and uses a mobile application to bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar stores and the virtual world. The mobile app provides a Virtual Try-On feature that allows customers to ‘try on’ jewelry and designs using a virtual reflection and image.

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Give Your Users Mobile Access to Tally ERP and Tally Prime!

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February 15, 2024

Mobile Access to Tally ERP and Tally Prime with Built-In Analytics is Key to User Satisfaction!

If your team is using Tally ERP or Tally Prime, you know the value of this solution and of its modules. Whether your business users are accountants, finance team members, purchasing professionals, sales managers or performing some other function, the day-to-day use of Tally solutions is key to their role and responsibilities.

‘Today’s users are more demanding and they want the right tools to do their job.’

Companies using Tally include Axis Bank with nearly 92,000 employees, Trafigura with more than 12,000 employees, Rural Electrification Corp. with 550 employees, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance with more than 11,500 employees, and many other businesses.

Mobile Access to Tally Solutions is Key to User Productivity

To make the most of the Tally solution and environment, your business users will need mobile access to Tally and to an augmented analytics solution that will enable analysis of data, allow users to spot issues and trends and identify opportunities, as well as collaborate with other users. Today, mobile access to these tools is more important than ever.

A changing work environment means that businesses must adapt to remote workers, and capitalize on a smaller resource pool, enabling work from home, in airports, at a client location or other location outside the office. This mobile access allows users to continue making progress on projects, and to analyze and assess issues to develop recommendations and strategies, no matter where they are working.

Pre-built reporting is available to users so your team can leverage dashboards, and reporting including sales, banking, payables and receivables, inventory, taxes, cost center reports, ledgers and more with drill-down capability to get to the heart of the issue and find the root cause of a problem.

Today’s users are more demanding and they want the right tools to do their job. They don’t want to wait until they get back to the office to complete a task or make a decision and, as consumers, they are used to having mobile access to all relevant data and tasks. Mobile access via a cloud server allows the user to fetch and display the required data in graph and report form and all interactions and transactions are secure.

‘Whether your business users are accountants, finance team members, purchasing professionals, sales managers or performing some other function, the day-to-day use of Tally solutions is key to their role and responsibilities.’

Find out how SmartenApps for Tally will support your accounting, finance, sales, inventory, and purchasing analytical needs, and bring your team and your business to the next level. Enjoy a 30-Day Free Trial of SmartenApps for Tally. Users can Download and Register for SmartenApps for Tally and use Tally data to analyze, explore and clarify.

Mobile Access to Tally ERP and Tally Prime with Built-In Analytics is Key to User Satisfaction

Original Post : Mobile Access to Tally Solutions is Key to User Productivity!

Can I Ensure That My Analytics Project Gets Approved?

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February 14, 2024

You have decided that your business can benefit from an analytics solution. Now, it is time to convince your executive team, your managers and your users. If you are to gain approval for your initiative, you must take the right approach.

In this article, we discuss some of the primary factors you must consider to build and present your initiative to the various audiences within your organization.

How Can Assure Approval of My Analytics Project?

A four-year study of businesses implementing analytics solutions found the following:

  • Less than 50% of the businesses reported measurable results
  • Only one third of the businesses met their objectives for user adoption
  • 77% said that user adoption was a challenge
  • Only 20% reported that analytics insights provided positive business outcomes

Before you give up on your initiative, consider this: most software projects fail because of poor planning and execution. So, if you can plan appropriately, you will be way ahead of the game. Here are a few factors you will need to include in your review and planning process.

IT Team – Be sure you include your IT team in your planning. You will need a comprehensive understanding of your existing technology, hardware, network and devices and you will need the help of your IT team to assist you in planning roll-out, estimating the cost of new technology to implement your plan, and interviewing prospective solution vendors and service providers.

To Gain Their Buy-In: Involve them, and ask for their opinion. Build a plan and allow them to review it and comment. Listen to their concerns. Ask for their support in working with users. Ensure that the vendor you engage will provide support for IT so that your IT team is not overwhelmed with new and expanded tasks and responsibilities.

Executives – Senior executives will be looking at investment costs, return on investment (ROI) and the total cost of ownership (TCO) and at the value you claim this solution will provide. Be prepared before you approach your executive team. Be sure you have involved all the right players and include representatives of these groups to address concerns and answer questions if the executive team wants to probe and challenge.

To Gain Their Buy-In: Be prepared! Keep your presentation at a high level, but be sure you have the details to answer their questions if and when they arise. Provide more detailed reports for them to peruse at their leisure. They probably won’t dive in, but they will be reassured that you have done your homework. Focus your presentation on a) reduction of cost, b) competitive positioning with EXAMPLES of how analytics will help achieve these goals, c) doing less with more and making the company more productive.

Managers – Managers will be concerned about putting more strain on business users and team members and, since the modern approach to business intelligence and analytics involves the business users and their transition to Citizen Data Scientists, you must focus on the managers and what’s in it for them. How does this help them to do their job? They are accountable for results, and they only have so many team members to get the job done. They are also evaluated, based on how their employees see their management style and effectiveness, and they will not want their team to complain.

To Gain Their Buy-In: Focus on their business processes and workflow and how augmented analytics and business user involvement can speed the process, ensure more fact-based decisions and make the managers look good, without putting more strain on the business user. Ensure that your vendor and IT team have a plan to reassure the managers so that they don’t worry about the use of sophisticated systems that will take a lot of training time. How will the roll-out be done? You want a controlled approach so that users are not spending a lot of time getting up to speed and neglecting day-to-day tasks.

Business Users – As usual, the buck stops with the team member. They are the ones who will be asked to change their processes, learn new systems and take on new responsibilities. Look again at the survey results reported above and notice how poor user adoption affected analytics projects. If you can’t get your users to adopt the solution, your project will fail. Your executives, IT team and managers may think this is a great idea, but they will blame you if the team does not respond positively. Involve users in advance to gather and thereby anticipate their concerns when you present your findings and your plan. Do not be defensive. Listen to their issues and incorporate those concerns into your review and selection of a vendor and a solution. With the right self-serve augmented analytics solution and service provider, you can assure them that a) the system will be easy to use and won’t take a lot of time to learn, b) will make their job easier and c) will give them a career advantage.

To Gain Their Buy-In: Listen, digest and address concerns. Understand that there is a culture shift involved in this process and be sure you acknowledge that at all levels of your presentation, including your executive team. Let’s not pretend this new idea will not require change. It will. But if you work with all levels to assure that new responsibilities will be rewarded in employee evaluations and that the team will be supported by managers who are true champions of the process, you will be ahead of the game. Try to meet with users without IT and managers in the room, and then regroup with the appropriate staff (managers, IT etc.) after you have had a chance to evaluate and address user concerns. Users are more likely to be receptive if they aren’t put on the spot. BUT be sure to control the discussion and the environment so it doesn’t turn into a complaint session. When you are ready to do your sales pitch and you have addressed all their concerns, focus on the user and their hot buttons. Tell them how this solution will help them and assure them that the vendor and your implementation team will be there every step of the way. And then follow through!

For more information and details on how to plan for and achieve success with an augmented analytics solutions, read our free articles: ‘A Roadmap to ROI and User Adoption of Augmented Analytics and BI Tools,’ ‘Making the Case for Embedded BI and Analytics,’and ‘Integrate Augmented Analytics and Digital Transformation to Achieve Continuous Business Improvement.’

In this article, we have included just a few of the considerations and factors you will have to address in order to build a plan for your Augmented Analytics project. It is a good idea to engage an IT expert – one with the skills and experience to anticipate your concerns, work with you on industry and business issues and plan for a small, medium or large enterprise installation. An expert team can help you manage the technology review and requirements, and plan for your presentation, etc. Be sure you choose a vendor with sophisticated augmented analytics features and functionality in an easy-to-use environment that will support the transition of your business users to Citizen Data Scientists and ensure that your project will succeed. Contact Us to find out how we can help you plan and achieve your goals. It really IS possible!

Original Post : How Can Assure Approval of My Analytics Project?

White Paper – Generative AI (GenAI): The Benefits and Application of AI in Analytics

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December 15, 2023

White Paper – Generative AI (GenAI): The Benefits and Application of AI in Analytics

If your enterprise wishes to consider AI in analytics, and plan for its future potential and growth, it is wise to first understand the state of the technology today, the various ways in which AI can inform and improve analytics for your business, the factors you will need to consider to choose the right analytics solution and the things your business should include in its vendor and solution review.

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Smarten Augmented Analytics is Named as a Representative Vendor in Gartner® 2023 ‘Market Guide for Augmented Analytics, Published October, 2023!

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November 23, 2023

Smarten is pleased to announce that its Smarten Augmented Analytics solution is included as a Representative Vendor in the Market Guide for Augmented Analytics Published October 2, 2023 (ID G00780764).

Continue reading “Smarten Augmented Analytics is Named as a Representative Vendor in Gartner® 2023 ‘Market Guide for Augmented Analytics, Published October, 2023!”