Tag: Citizen Data Scientist

Include Mobile BI Tools in Business Workflow

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September 9, 2024

Best Practices for Incorporating Mobile BI

When the business undertakes a Mobile BI initiative, it must plan carefully to ensure success, achieve rapid return on investment (ROI) and achieve low total cost of ownership (TCO).

There are four primary goals of this exercise:

  • Improve Collaboration and Productivity
  • Streamline Decision-Making
  • Optimize Time and Resources by Providing Business Users with Intuitive Tools
  • Engender an Environment That Will Support Citizen Data Scientists

‘Be sure that the mobile business intelligence solution you choose supports a seamless user experience, and allows users to easily see dashboards, reports etc.’

Ensure Mobile BI Success By Incorporating BI Tools Into Business Practices

To achieve these goals, you must assess existing workflow and business processes and ensure that users can incorporate mobile business intelligence within team tasks and activities, that IT can support the environment and that managers can make the best use of the data presented by the team.

Review and Address Culture and Workflow – Take a look at a) the technical skills and technology use of your users, managers and executives, and understand how and when they use data. How is data used (if at all) to make decisions, or gain approval? In order to make the best use of Mobile BI, you will want to integrate this solution into the day-to-day process, and be sure that there is an access loop for executives and managers to receive and review data from users.

Establish Objectives and Metrics – We discussed the fact that you must understand your requirements, but you should also use those requirements to define objectives for the project and to set metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will tell you that the users are leveraging the mobile business intelligence solution, and that the data produced is having a positive impact on organizational goals. Be sure to create a review process for metrics, so that you can identify trends and modify metrics and processes to adapt to change.

Review Data Accessibility and Quality – Ensure that your users have access to accurate data. Do you have a process in place to allow for data gathering, cleansing and validation? Have you eliminated redundant or duplicate records? Is the data you wish to use in Mobile BI easily integrated and accessible? Your users will not want to go to another source to get information so, if you want them to use Mobile BI tools, you must make the right information available to them within the Mobile BI environment.

Review the Need for User Training – Even when your users have access to most intuitive solutions, you may wish to have a simple training session to be sure that all users understand a) what is expected of them, b) how to use the solution most effectively and c) how to get help if they have questions or issues.

Reports and Visualization – Be sure that the mobile business intelligence solution you choose supports a seamless user experience, and allows users to easily see dashboards, reports etc. so that they can incorporate data and reporting into their staff reports, their meetings, and their recommendations to management without expensive, time-consuming report customization or custom visualization designs.

User and Data Volume – Be sure that you plan for expansion of the mobile BI solution. As you add departments, divisions, user groups and additional data sources, you will want to ensure that your devices, network, and mobile BI solution can support the additional load, and still perform well.

The Data-Driven Organization – It is all well and good to encourage your users to work with data, to analyze information and use that information to present ideas and solutions to management, but if the executive team or the middle managers do not accept and reward the use of data in decision-making, the mobile BI solution will be just another toy. Staff assessments and career evaluations should support fact-based decision making and discourage guesswork and opinion as a means to drawing conclusions. Team members and managers should solicit and encourage the use of data during staff meetings and to support reports and decisions.

‘Assess existing workflow and business processes and ensure that users can incorporate mobile business intelligence within team tasks and activities, that IT can support the environment and that managers can make the best use of the data presented by the team.’

In this article, we have discussed the importance of successful integration of Mobile BI into business practices.

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

In this article, we have defined mobile business intelligence (BI), and discussed the benefits of this type of solution, Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence and Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Choose The Right Mobile BI Vendor To Ensure Success,’ ‘How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?’ ‘Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: Include Mobile BI Tools in Business Workflow!

Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI

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September 6, 2024

Plan for Successful Mobile BI User Adoption

Today’s Mobile BI applications are more advanced, flexible and interactive and designed to respond to business user needs and expectations. These tools are more sophisticated, without requiring the skills of a data scientist, and more dynamic without requiring complex customization, and they provide more in-depth predictive analytical functionality and more interactive features. They operate seamlessly on all manner of devices without compromised displays or performance.

‘To ensure that your users will adopt the Mobile BI solution, you want to engage them.’

But access does not always ensure user adoption. When planning a Mobile BI deployment, there are factors you should include in your requirements planning and assessment to ensure you are taking user adoption into consideration.

Ease of Use and Intuitive Interface – What factors will determine the successful user adoption of these tools? Do you require that the solution be personalized to meet your business user needs or the needs of the organization? Can a business user with average skills navigate the solution and get results?

User Training – Does the prospective vendor provide support for roll-out, user training and best practices to enable user adoption and ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) goals?

Collaboration – When a business user is working in a silo, or when business users do not all have access to the same information, they cannot collaborate. Creative, innovative solutions and insightful decisions only happen when a business team, management team or other department, entity or group has access to tools that allow them to share, report, create reports, and present information in a way that enables collaboration.

Data Democratization – The trend toward Citizen Data Scientists has gained in popularity. As business users transition from isolated team members into Citizen Data Scientists, they need access to sophisticated BI tools that offer clear, concise results in an easy-to-use interface, with features that enable team members to quickly gather and analyze data and share that data with the team. The days of complex BI tools managed by IT teams and Data Scientists are over! While Data Scientists work with crucial data to provide strategic direction, business users with access to self-serve BI tools can perform day-to-day analytics and find the information that will help them complete tasks and make better decisions.

Data Literacy – Today’s businesses must do more with less. That means that every resource, every skill, and every piece of knowledge must be leveraged to produce results. When business users gain literacy in data analytics, they can combine career knowledge, industry skills and business experience with data insights to produce better results. Providing the right Mobile BI tools to business users, takes the guesswork and frustration out of data analytics and ensures user adoption and improved data literacy.

Metrics to Show Usefulness in Tasks and Processes – Use what you have learned about business user frustrations, workflow, gaps, delays etc., to develop use cases and metrics that will reveal how fast things can be done, how mobile BI tools can support existing business processes, and how fact-based decision making can reduce re-work and encourage collaboration, etc.

Champions and Power Users – In every enterprise, there are people who love technology, people who are curious and love to learn, and people who are power users of devices, software and tools that will make them a) look good to their managers, b) develop a reputation as a leader, and c) grow in knowledge and skill. Use these champions and power users to find out what they know about user frustrations, and to educate them and solicit their help in user adoption. This group may represent the first roll-out and, by capturing feedback and results from that group, you can develop an approach to the user group at large.

Businesses often make technology decisions without consulting business users and they suffer the consequences. You can spend a lot of money on technology, take the time to plan for implementation and roll-out and then face resistance from business users and that resistance can often result in poor solution adoption and poor return on investment (ROI). To ensure that your users will adopt the solution, you want to engage them. Whether you are expanding the use of BI tools to include Mobile BI, or beginning your business intelligence journey, you can benefit from the feedback your users provide.

Planning Helps the Business Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI Tools

Find out what gaps, delays or issues they have in their workflow. If they are satisfied with status quo, ask them to make a wish list to make their lives even easier, and see how you can satisfy those things. With so many employees working remotely and taking on new responsibilities, it is likely that they will embrace the idea of additional access to information. Some users will see analytics as taking on new responsibilities and they will say they are already overloaded. Whenever a business wishes to change the way things are done, it will face resistance. The key is to show users how these new tools will make their lives easier, and that requires listening and research.

‘When planning a Mobile BI deployment, there are factors you should include in your requirements planning and assessment to ensure you are taking user adoption into consideration.’

There will always be a small group of team members who hold out and refuse to adopt new tools or processes but if a business can capture the majority of the team, and the team begins to use the tools to their benefit, even those hold-outs will eventually adapt and adopt!

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence And Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Choose The Right Mobile BI Vendor To Ensure Success,’ ‘How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?’ ‘Include Mobile BI Tools In Business Workflow,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI!

Choose the Right Mobile BI Vendor to Ensure Success

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September 5, 2024

Not Every Mobile BI Solution Will Deliver Results

Recent Surveys And Statistics Published By Mordor Intelligence, reveal that the fastest growing market for Mobile BI is in the Asia Pacific and the largest market is in North America. The market is forecasted to achieve nearly a 23% growth over the next three years. With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, as well as data visualization tools, designed for charting, dashboards and performance scorecards. The emergence of Big Data and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has become popular as users share, communicate and collaborate using cloud-based platforms and networks. These surveys reveal that eCommerce operation are rapidly becoming a primary market for mobile BI demand, followed closely by the banking sector. The popularity of Mobile BI usage has grown exponentially in many business sectors and industries including:

  • Telecommunications
  • Software Technology
  • Retail
  • Professional Services
  • Manufacturing
  • Healthcare
  • Financial Services

There are many Self Service Analytics providers in the mobile business intelligence market, and when a business considers solutions, it must carefully review the options, solutions, vendor services and reputation. In this article, we will discuss some of the primary considerations for features and functionality, support, upgrades, technology, etc., and we will discuss some of the possible issues and challenges.

‘Your business should be aware that there are some challenges with mobile business intelligence solutions. Be sure you review prospective solutions to ensure that there are no gaps, issues or shortcomings.’

Mobile BI Solutions are Not Created Equal: Choose the Right Vendor

Here are some important features to consider when reviewing Self Service Data Analytics mobile BI tools:

  • Native application with an intuitive user experience (UI) and interface
  • Compliant with Android and iOS
  • Real-Time Analytics
  • Designed to encourage user adoption with tools for team members with average skills
  • Provides support for BI investment and data democratization without the need for customization
  • Product roadmap includes plans for upgrades and technology advancement
  • Start-up is easy and support is readily available
  • Intuitive Visualization and Presentation of Data
  • Personalized Dashboards and Reports
  • Dynamic Charts and Graphs
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) Search Analytics
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
  • Anomaly Monitoring and Alerts
  • Easy, Affordable Licensing
  • Free Downloads/Trials

A full suite of self-service analytics capabilities, mobile BI tools, modules, features and functionality is critical, but it is also crucial that your business look at its own requirements and select a solution that suits your needs.

What follows is a short list of considerations to include in your vendor and business intelligence product review so that you can match your selection to your needs:

Current Solutions (if any) vs. Requirements – If you have a business intelligence or augmented analytics solution, your team should assess how well this solution is meeting requirements. Where are the gaps, does the solution help your team meet goals and objectives? If you want to expand your business intelligence solution to include mobile BI, will the existing BI tools integrate with a mobile solution? If you are new to the business intelligence market, your requirements will be very different. Your team must assess your need for augmented analytics and mobile access, including all the issues and requirements noted below.

Business Users and Current Culture – Document the groups and individuals that will use the mobile BI tool. How many licenses or users will you need to register? What are the skills of these users? Do you have power users that can lead the charge? How will you roll-out and deploy the solution (by region, by department, in controlled user groups) to gain momentum while controlling implementation and analyzing success. What do you need to consider to accommodate existing business processes and workflows? How will mobile delivery change business processes?

Ease of Use and Intuitive Interface – What factors will determine the successful user adoption of these tools? Do you require that the solution be personalized to meet your business user needs or the needs of the organization? Can a business user with average skills navigate the solution and get results?

Technology and Integration Needs – What data repositories, current BI tools or analytics, will you integrate and make available to users? Do you need to upgrade hardware, networks, etc. to accommodate this project?

Finally, your business should be aware that there are some challenges with mobile business intelligence solutions. Be sure you review prospective solutions to ensure that there are no gaps, issues or shortcomings in these areas:

Data Governance

Does the prospective solution provide administrative tools to ensure quality and governance access for your IT team? Can they easily define access, manage dashboards, etc.

Security

In an effort to provide accessible, productive tools, businesses can sometimes expose themselves to legal risk, or privacy concerns in the form of data theft, hacking or data loss. Be sure that the vendor you choose has a demonstrable multi-layered security approach that limits access to data that a user needs, and provides controls to mitigate the risk of external threats.

Performance

To be useful, mobile BI tools must be accessible. That means that the solution must have reliable data connectivity and reliable performance, refresh rates, data transfer and display, data caching and compression, etc.

User Training and Adoption

Does the prospective vendor provide support for roll-out, user training and best practices to enable user adoption and ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) goals?

The best augmented analytics solution will provide Mobile BI Tools that are flexible enough to adapt to your needs, without expensive customization and time-consuming fixes.

‘There are many Self Service Analytics providers in the mobile business intelligence market, and when a business considers solutions, it must carefully review the options, solutions, vendor services and reputation.’

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

In this article, we have the factors involved in selecting a mobile business intelligence (BI) solution. Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence And Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Ensure User Adoption Of Mobile BI,’ ‘How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?’ ‘Include Mobile BI Tools In Business Workflow,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: Choose the Right Mobile BI Vendor to Ensure Success!

How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?

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September 4, 2024

Mobile BI Can Benefit Your Business in Numerous Ways

Gartner defines the field of analytics and business intelligence technology as, ‘an umbrella term that includes the applications, infrastructure and tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and optimize decisions and performance.’

In order to understand the evolution and importance of Mobile Business Intelligence, we must go beyond the technically specific definition, to talk about the concepts and the purpose of Mobile Business Intelligence Solutions, and how mobile business intelligence tools can help your business become more productive and support success.

‘Providing the right Mobile BI tools to business users, takes the guesswork and frustration out of data analytics and ensures user adoption and improved data literacy.’

While many businesses today have recognized the value of self-serve analytics, they may a) not yet have implemented augmented analytics within the organization, b) have implemented business intelligence (BI) and analytics within the walls of the office environment, or c) be planning to expand self-service analytics to include mobile business intelligence mobile apps that will provide access for business users working in any environment.

Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) Has Many Benefits to Business and Business Users

Here we will discuss the benefits of self service analytics as they relate to the Mobile Business Intelligence environment. Here are just some of the benefits of mobile business intelligence:

Accessibility – When business users have access to real-time data, and insights into results, challenges and opportunities, they can mitigate risk, adapt to change and answer questions from customers, team members, managers and others. Desktop and enterprise BI tools require users to be in the office, which limits access to tools and information for remote users or those who are often on the road, working at home or visiting customers.

Adaptability – If the recent global pandemic taught businesses anything, it highlighted the need to adapt to change, and to establish and sustain tools, business processes and an environment that can support users and the business no matter the situation. The evolution of Mobile BI tools has allowed businesses and their team members to work from anywhere, to remain connected with access to valuable data insights and to keep the business moving with timely approvals, decisions and completion of tasks and activities.

Productivity – If there is one thing business users and their managers hate more than anything, it is the inability to complete tasks or the fear that a task will be completed without all the required information. Team members who are out of touch can hold up the completion of a task or make the wrong decision, because they do not have access to the right information and/or they lack the tools to share information with other users.

Collaboration – When a business user is working in a silo, or when business users do not all have access to the same information, they cannot collaborate. Creative, innovative solutions and insightful decisions only happen when a business team, management team or other department, entity or group has access to tools that allow them to share, report, create reports, and present information in a way that enables collaboration.

Data Democratization – The trend toward Citizen Data Scientists has gained in popularity. As business users transition from isolated team members into Citizen Data Scientists, they need access to sophisticated BI tools that offer clear, concise results in an easy-to-use interface, with features that enable team members to quickly gather and analyze data and share that data with the team. The days of complex BI tools managed by IT teams and Data Scientists are over! While Data Scientists work with crucial data to provide strategic direction, business users with access to self-serve BI tools can perform day-to-day analytics and find the information that will help them complete tasks and make better decisions.

Data Literacy – Today’s businesses must do more with less. That means that every resource, every skill, and every piece of knowledge must be leveraged to produce results. When business users gain literacy in data analytics, they can combine career knowledge, industry skills and business experience with data insights to produce better results. Providing the right Mobile BI tools to business users, takes the guesswork and frustration out of data analytics and ensures user adoption and improved data literacy

Time to Market – Your business must quickly adapt to change, understand competitive initiatives, shifting customer buying behavior, supply and demand challenges and more. With the right mobile business intelligence tools, users can discover the hidden nuggets of information that will help the business move forward quickly. They can answer prospective customer questions to close an order, and explore product bundling opportunities, and new product possibilities, or analyze and suggest changes to supply chain flow or production to ensure swift, reliable time to market.

Fact-Based Decision-Making – Mobile Business Intelligence solutions provide dashboards, reporting, analytical tools and other features on-the-go, so users can explore data, drill-down to find the root cause of a problem, perform searches using natural language processing (NLP) search analytics, visualize data, share data and make confident, data-driven decisions from any location.

‘When business users have access to real-time data, and insights into results, challenges and opportunities, they can mitigate risk, adapt to change and answer questions from customers, team members, managers and others.’

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

In this article, we have defined mobile business intelligence (BI), and discussed the benefits of this type of solution, Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence And Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Choose The Right Mobile BI Vendor To Ensure Success,’ ‘Ensure User Adoption Of Mobile BI,’ ‘Include Mobile BI Tools In Business Workflow,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?

An IT Partner Can Help Your Citizen Data Scientist Initiative

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September 2, 2024

Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Program Results with a Partner

If your business has embraced the Citizen Data Scientist approach and are trying to get started with your initiative, you want to plan for success.

Gartner predicts that, ‘…automation of data science tasks will enable citizen data scientists to produce a higher volume of advanced analysis, than specialized data scientists.’

But if you are to achieve the results this prediction promises, you must ensure that your business has the expertise and the resources to plan for, execute, monitor and upgrade your environment so that you can achieve your goals now and in the future.

‘Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite.’

For those businesses that are planning a Citizen Data Scientist initiative, it is wise to choose an IT consulting partner. You don’t have to go it alone! The right partner can help you with strategies and walk you through the process to build a new foundation and to support your future growth and adapt to changing market environs.

Engage a Skilled IT Partner and Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success

Capabilities

Choose an IT consultant that can provide data science, analytics, technology, and soft leadership skills to ensure that your project is well staffed, and that you have what you need 24/7. The right IT consultant will have a plan to keep the augmented analytics products evergreen and grow with the field of technology and innovation.

Services

Choose an IT consultant that can help you plan and implement your Citizen Data Scientist initiative with workshops, webinars, and other resources designed to jump start data democratization, help you achieve appropriate data governance and do it all with minimal training and time investment. Services should include onsite, offsite or hybrid delivery, requirements planning, project management, architecture and data management, data science support, business user support, training.

Skills and Experience

Be sure the IT consultant you choose has a wealth of experience and references and a proven track record. Compare their services, fees and staffing capabilities to other vendors and consultants and choose wisely. You will want an IT consultant that can:

  • Encourage Collaboration
  • Engender Accountability
  • Improve user adoption, improve Business Intelligence ROI and overall organizational value
  • Improve Data Literacy
  • Increase Fact-Based Decision-Making
  • Optimize IT, Data Scientist and Business User resources
  • Transform Business Users into Citizen Data Scientists!
  • Provide Mobile Access for Business Users – Anytime, Anywhere!
  • Support rapid implementation and deployment

Select the Right Augmented Analytics Solution

Not all augmented analytics solutions are equal! Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite that includes:

‘If you are to achieve the results this prediction promises, you must ensure that your business has the expertise and the resources to plan for, execute, monitor and upgrade your environment so that you can achieve your goals now and in the future.’

The right augmented analytics solution can make or break your Citizen Data Scientist program. Your users do not want a solution that is hard to learn or takes too much time. They want something that will support their needs and make their job easier – a solution that will give them clear, concise data without the need for advanced skills or knowledge. If you provide them with tools that are easy to learn, and a clear path to complete their transition to Citizen Data Scientist, they are more likely to embrace the concept and support the initiative, and your business will achieve the goals it has established.

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘The Importance And Benefits Of A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist And How Has Their Role Changed?’ ‘Planning And Preparing For A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Original Post: An IT Partner Can Help Your Citizen Data Scientist Initiative!

Plan Carefully for a Citizen Data Scientist Program

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August 30, 2024

Create a Plan for Citizen Data Scientists

The term, ‘Citizen Data Scientist’ has been around since 2016, when the world-renowned technology research firm, Gartner, coined the phrase. Whether you want to know more about the concept, understand the concept and would like to know if your business can leverage this approach to improve its market position and customer visibility, or you have embraced the Citizen Data Scientist approach and are looking for ways to expand and refine the concept within your own business environment, we are here to help.

As Gartner research states, ‘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.’

Planning and Preparing for a Citizen Data Scientist Initiative

One of the most important aspects of any new, large scale initiative, is preparation and when it comes to the Citizen Data Scientist approach, preparation is equally important. Let’s look at some of the primary factors and considerations you must include in your planning process.

‘Will you deploy the augmented analytics solution across the entire enterprise at once, or will you roll it out by division, department, location, etc.? Who will be in charge of the deployment?’

Review Technology and Business Processes

Look at your current technology and all the places your data resides (data warehouses, the cloud (private or public), best-of-breed software, legacy software, ERP, CRM, HR, SCM, and other focused solutions that support a particular division, team or department. You will want to integrate data from all possible sources in order to give your users the information they need to perform analytics.

Work with your IT team, and (if you have already chosen an IT consultant) with your advisors to analyze the technology and infrastructure and establish a plan of attack. Consider the network, hardware and software, and decide whether you will want Embedded BI within any popular software solution to allow users to leverage a single sign-on environment to access data and analyze it all in one place.

Review business processes, workflow, approval loops etc., and see where you can gain advantage by including analytics and technology to improve productivity and the quality and speed of decisions.

Involving Stakeholders, Customers, Users, IT, etc.

Management and/or IT cannot plan for and execute this type of change alone. You will need to understand how cascading analytics throughout the organization will impact your users, your customers and others. Establish a team that includes representatives from the various functions, levels and areas within the enterprise.

Listen to their concerns and address those concerns with an appropriate plan for deployment, training, ongoing support, etc. Otherwise, you are unlikely to succeed. User adoption is important but you can also use this time to identify and highlight those areas where you can find opportunities and thereby improve the success metrics and outcomes you hope to achieve.

Choosing an Augmented Analytics Solution

Choosing the right augmented analytics and business intelligence (BI) solution will drive success of a Citizen Data Scientist initiative. These solutions are key to helping you achieve your goals and to supporting your business users as they make the transition to Citizen Data Scientists. Look for a full suite of features and functionality to support your users.

Not all augmented analytics solutions are equal! Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite that includes:

Planning for Deployment

Will you deploy the augmented analytics solution across the entire enterprise at once, or will you roll it out by division, department, location, etc.? Who will be in charge of the deployment? Your team should include representatives from the various groups that have a vested interest in the outcome. When you choose an IT consultant, they can help you plan for and execute your strategy so that it is successful and you are not overwhelmed.

Depending on the solution you choose, you will have to consider citizen data scientist training. While there are citizen data scientist certification courses, if you choose the right augmented analytics solution you are not likely to need this type of training but, rather a simple introduction that will explain the new role, how to work with and collaborate with data scientists and IT and how to use the augmented analytics solution to get the information the business user needs in a way that is meaningful to them.

‘One of the most important aspects of any new, large scale initiative, is preparation and when it comes to the Citizen Data Scientist approach, preparation is equally important.’

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘The Importance And Benefits Of A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist And How Has Their Role Changed?’ ‘Engage A Skilled IT Partner And Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Original Post: Plan Carefully for a Citizen Data Scientist Program!

What Are the Benefits of a Citizen Data Scientist Initiative?

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August 29, 2024

Understand the Benefits of Citizen Data Scientists

Businesses are discovering the importance and the value of using Citizen Data Scientists within the organization to collaborate and share data and to learn from each other and from the patterns, trends and insights data can provide and use that insight to solve problems and to identify opportunities.

The Importance of Citizen Data Scientists has become a focus for the wise business executive and manager. Understanding Citizen Data Scientists and how they can supplement analytics and help the organization to be more successful, can be a real competitive advantage for a business, whether that business is in a local market, a global industry, a vertical niche or a broad corporate footprint.

‘There is ample research to illustrate the value of an educated team, and the more information your team has to make the right decision, the less rework and missteps the organization will experience.’

In this article, we focus on the Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists, assuming a well-conceived program. These benefits assume the identification and selection of an appropriate augmented analytics solution to support business users and the business organization.

Benefits to the Enterprise

  • Turning business users into Citizen Data Scientists can have many benefits for the business organization.
  • Allows the organization to improve data democratization and leverage all-important data to make objective decisions
  • Creates a metrics-based decision-making process that is measurable and can be easily adapted and managed
  • Improves the value of team member contribution
  • Optimizes professionals skills of data scientists and IT professionals and allows them to focus on strategic and operational tasks and goals
  • Improves Competitive Advantage by optimizing resources, skills, knowledge and data
  • Allows the organization to be agile and to adapt quickly to the market and to changing customer behavior
  • Identifies challenges and issues before they become a real problem
  • Identifies opportunities for growth and customer engagement

Benefits to Data Scientists

  • Allows Data Scientists to focus on strategic initiatives, rather than constantly responding to business user requests
  • Allows Data Scientists to collaborate and engage with business users in a meaningful way to build teams and expand knowledge and understanding of the business
  • Creates the foundation for additional tools and techniques that can be leveraged by Data Scientists with advanced skills

Benefits to IT Professionals

  • Enables IT professionals to focus on day-to-day and strategic objectives and tasks without having to respond to business user requests for reports and information from data repositories
  • Provides additional data governance and the ability to monitor and track ‘popular’ data and reports and to create environs that offer users and data scientists the right support
  • Allows IT professionals to collaborate with business users and data scientists to better support the organization and to identify opportunities for their own growth and potential

Benefits to Business Users

  • Builds an understanding of data in a way that is meaningful to a business user role and responsibilities
  • Supports fact-based decision-making and alleviates issues resulting from decisions made by guesswork and opinion
  • Allows users to easily integrate and gather data for analytics and to leverage sophisticated tools in an intuitive environment
  • Improves business user data literacy and data democratization providing information that is crucial to team members and to the successful completion of tasks and workflow
  • Supports day-to-day analytics and allows business users to make clear, concise recommendations and suggestions to improve outcomes
  • Allows business users to collaborate with data scientists and It professionals for refinement of analytics to take data insight to the next level for strategic decisions
  • Enables career advancement and expands knowledge, team visibility and success
  • Ensures that all team members within the enterprise have the right information to do their jobs and to support organizational goals and objectives

The Risks Of Empowering Citizen Data Scientists are often discussed in industry publications, so it is important to mention this side of the argument. Citizen Data Scientist pros and cons typically fall into these general categories:

  • Business Users should not be given access to data because of security or data governance concerns
    Note: The right augmented analytics tools and solutions will provide multi-layered security and allow IT to create appropriate access to data and ensure the security and privacy of the data the executive management team wishes to isolate or guard.
  • Analytics is not appropriate for business users because they can’t understand the data or reports and may use the data in appropriately
    Note: While every business users may not need to use data analytics every day, many will. Roles and responsibilities will dictate this need and, with the right solution, even users with average technology skills can gather and create analytics that are easy to understand and will guide the team to clear, concise results and decisions.
  • The use of analytics in the general business community is not necessary and does not provide value
    Note: There is ample research to illustrate the value of an educated team, and the more information your team has to make the right decision, the less rework and missteps the organization will experience. Think of your team as an army. Everyone has to know what direction they are headed, and have the information they need to get the job done, or your success will be at risk. Provide the support your team needs to learn the new approach and trust them to apply their market, industry and functional knowledge to analytics to achieve the best outcome and the clearest decisions.
  • The cost of providing analytics to business users is too high and is not supported by the value it provides
    Note: The right augmented analytics solution does not have to be expensive, or difficult to implement or learn. Assess your current situation and your needs and choose a solution that will support your team and your budget and schedule. It IS possible and it will provide numerous benefits and add value far beyond the cost of the solution.
Minimum Viable Products (MVP) Produces Better Business Start-Up Results

Turning Business Users Into Citizen Data Scientists is a process that should not be taken lightly – but that doesn’t mean it is impossible or even daunting. It simply means you must prepare and, like any other shift within your organization, you must adapt your culture, your technology, your business processes and your workflow.

‘Understanding Citizen Data Scientists and how they can supplement analytics and help the organization to be more successful, can be a real competitive advantage for a business, whether that business is in a local market, a global industry, a vertical niche or a broad corporate footprint.’

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist And How Has Their Role Changed?’ ‘Planning And Preparing For A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘Engage A Skilled IT Partner And Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Original Post: What Are the Benefits of a Citizen Data Scientist Initiative?

What is a Citizen Data Scientist and How Has the Role Changed?

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August 28, 2024

Defining and Understanding the Citizen Data Scientist

The world-renowned technology research firm, Gartner, first introduced the concept of the Citizen Data Scientist in 2016. Since then, the idea has grown in popularity, and the role has grown in importance and prominence.

‘To fulfill the role of a Citizen Data Scientist, business users today can leverage augmented analytics solutions; that is analytics that provide simple recommendations and suggestions to help users easily choose visualization and predictive analytics techniques from within the analytical tool without the need for expert analytical skills.’

Gartner defines a citizen data scientist as, ‘a person who creates or generates models that leverage predictive or prescriptive analytics, but whose primary job function is outside of the field of statistics and analytics.’

Who is a Citizen Data Scientist? The role of a citizen data scientist is played by a business user or team member within the organization. The typical profile of an ideal Citizen Data Scientist is a person who is respected within the organization, and often shares data and information with other users to collaborate and produce outcomes that are designed to achieve goals and objectives and produce a successful outcome. These individuals may already be ‘power users’ of business applications and may have developed and reported or presented data to others with an eye toward clarifying their decision-making. Citizen Data Scientist candidates may also be IT team members who are interested in data science. In any case, these candidates will typically be uniquely curious, interested in data analytics and devoted to fact-based decisions and team collaboration.

The Definition and Evolution of the Citizen Data Scientist Role

Who are Citizen Data Scientists within your own organization? You will know them by their willingness to learn new things, and to advance their own visibility and their own careers by using new skills to improve results within your organization. What are Citizen Analysts? They are team members who are not IT professionals, data scientists or business analysts but are willing and able to leverage analytics and data science tools to solve business problems.

It took a while for the global business community to embrace the concept of Citizen Data Scientists and, even today, there are those naysayers who believe that the only correct approach to analytics is by using Data Scientists or business analysts or engaging the internal IT team to create reports and provide analytics for decision-making.

But the race to compete and the complexities and rapid rate of change have forced businesses to look for alternatives and the Citizen Data Scientist role has become more popular as those leading the charge prove the value of the role to the organization and to the business users, data scientists and IT professionals.

The role of the Citizen Data Scientist began as a simple augmentation to gather data and create reports for daily use but Interest In The Role Has Tripled Over The Past Decade, and the responsibilities and visibility of the Citizen Data Scientist have evolved.

Much of the evolution and the potential of the role has been driven by the evolution of business intelligence (BI) tools and the introduction of augmented analytics and solutions that employ natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to enable those with average technical skills to gather and analyze data and produce results for clear insight, using sophisticated tools that are designed to be simple enough for the average business user to understand.

As team members perform these tasks, share data and collaborate, the business can engender data democratization and improve data literacy across the enterprise.

To fulfill the role of a Citizen Data Scientist, business users today can leverage augmented analytics solutions; that is analytics that provide simple recommendations and suggestions to help users easily choose visualization and predictive analytics techniques from within the analytical tool without the need for expert analytical skills.

When a Citizen Data Scientist uses these tools, the resulting analysis can be combined with the professional knowledge and specific domain skills of the individual to better understand and gain insight into trends, patterns, issues and opportunities and improve time to market, accuracy of predictions, and metrics and measurements.

Adopting these tools and techniques and actively engaging in augmented analytics allows the Citizen Data Scientist to more effectively interact with and collaborate with the IT team and data scientists to prepare data and use data in use cases, and to refine outcomes and improve data-driven decision making across the enterprise.

One of the most important lessons learned in the past decade is that the Citizen Data Scientist role can be rewarding to the organization and to the business user. But to succeed, the enterprise must plan carefully. It must understand how to use Citizen Data Scientists and create an environment that allows for this transition. Selecting a business intelligence or augmented analytics tool and deploying that tool does not, in and of itself, solve your problems. You must plan for the cultural shift and ensure that the business users have the support they need to transition into the citizen data scientist role.

‘The typical profile of an ideal Citizen Data Scientist is a person who is respected within the organization, and often shares data and information with other users to collaborate and produce outcomes that are designed to achieve goals and objectives and produce a successful outcome.’

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘The Importance And Benefits Of A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘Planning And Preparing For A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘Engage A Skilled IT Partner And Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Original Post: What is a Citizen Data Scientist and How Has the Role Changed?

Citizen Data Scientists Can Partner With Data Scientists!

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August 6, 2024

A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative Can Optimize Data Scientists and Encourage a Data-Driven Culture!

According to some estimates, the average salary of a Data Scientist in the United States is over $150,000 per year. If your business wishes to accommodate a ‘data-first’ strategy to improve metrics and measurable success and avoid guesswork and strategies that are based on opinion rather than fact, it can either employ a team of expensive professionals, or it can take a different approach.

‘Citizen Data Scientists can use their knowledge of a business sector, industry, function or market to drive questions and develop reports and presentations to illustrate issues, identify problems and find opportunities for growth and competitive positioning, and share this data (and the search and analytical techniques) with other users.’

Citizen Data Scientists are business users who have a place on your team and are hired because of their professional and career experience in a particular industry, business function or discipline. When they are given access to data analytics, they can merge their knowledge of an industry, e.g., research, healthcare, law, finance, sales, supply chain, production, construction etc., with data integrated from databases, best-of-breed software programs, ERP, SCM, HRM and other systems and use sophisticated analytical tools in an easy-to-use, intuitive environment to gather and analyze data and produce insightful, concise results that are meaningful to their role.

Leverage Citizen Data Scientists to Augmented Data Scientist Teams

Depending on the size, market and industry of your business, you may choose to augment your staff with one or more data scientists to refine results produced by Citizen Data Scientists on a day-to-day basis. So, if a power user or business users discovers a challenge or an opportunity and your management team wishes to further explore the issue to understand its strategic or operational value, a Data Scientist can take the predictive model or other analytical report produced by a Citizen Data Scientist and refine the results for executive review.

Whether you choose to employ the services of a Data Scientist, provide business analysts or IT professionals to support your business users, you can create a comprehensive foundation for analytics across your organization.

By democratizing data analytics you can achieve many benefits, including:

  • Improved Data Literacy Across the Enterprise
  • Improved Productivity of Data Scientists, IT and Business Analysts (who can spend time on strategic initiatives rather than producing daily reports)
  • Optimized Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for all software and systems
  • Fact-Based Decisions and Metrics-Driven Strategies, Goals and Objectives
  • Team Member Career Advancement
  • Optimization of Resources and Improved Team Productivity

A comprehensive self-serve augmented analytics solution will include Modern Business Intelligence (BI) and Reporting with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Self-Serve Data Preparation, Assisted Predictive Modeling, and Smart Data Visualization with auto-suggestions to drive the analytical techniques and illustration of data based on data type, volume, etc., and other tools like Embedded BI, Mobile BI, Key Influencer Analytics, Sentiment Analysis, and Anomaly Alerts and Monitoring.

With these tools, the Citizen Data Scientist can leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP) and search analytics with machine learning to ask questions using simple human queries and receive insightful answers. They can use their knowledge of a business sector, industry, function or market to drive questions and develop reports and presentations to illustrate issues, identify problems and find opportunities for growth and competitive positioning, and share this data (and the search and analytical techniques) with other users.

Citizen Data Scientists can predict customer responses to new product features, and to new marketing campaigns, analyze the likelihood of fraud or risk, identify supply chain issues, etc. These tools can also help the organization to foster collaboration and data sharing and encourage business users to innovate, create and explore opportunities using data-driven, factual information.

‘When Citizen Data Scientists are given access to data analytics, they can merge their knowledge of an industry, e.g., research, healthcare, law, finance, sales, supply chain, production, construction etc., with data integrated from databases, best-of-breed software programs, ERP, SCM, HRM and other systems and use sophisticated analytical tools in an easy-to-use, intuitive environment to gather and analyze data and produce insightful, concise results that are meaningful to their role.’

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 : Leverage Citizen Data Scientists to Augmented Data Scientist Teams!

Understanding and Addressing Data Anomalies in Business!

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June 18, 2024

How Can My Business Understand and Handle Those Pesky Data Anomalies?

Why guess at the cause of your business results? Whether you are seeing positive or negative results, it is still important to understand the ‘why.’ Without this information, you cannot adapt and adjust to improve declining results, OR repeat and improve those great results you are experiencing.

Continue reading “Understanding and Addressing Data Anomalies in Business!”