It seems that everyone today is talking about Citizen Data Scientists. For some organizations the concept is perhaps frightening. The term may conjure up images of novices trying to do the work of someone with years of training and failing miserably in the process. For others, the image may be of an organization run amuck with business users leveraging sophisticated advanced analytics tools to create and share data that may be misinterpreted or distributed improperly.
Democracy is a great thing! The more involved people are, the more they understand, the better decisions they can make for themselves and for everyone else AND they can make a better contribution as well. Data Democratization works the same way. In years past, businesses thought that only senior management needed to understand the strategy and direction of the company but employees and team members lacked the knowledge to make the right decisions and become a great asset to the organization.
In this white paper, we will discuss the emergence and importance of Citizen Data Scientists and the role of self-serve data preparation, smart data visualization and plug n’ play predictive analysis in transforming business users into Citizen Data Scientists. The wise organization must establish a data environment that integrates data from disparate sources, and presents sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tools that will lead business users in the right direction with tools that offer recommended report presentations and visualization formats and clearly identify trends and patterns to mitigate bad data assumptions and interpretations.
I recently attended a business intelligence conference and I was reminded how important data democratization is for every company. One of the most important things to consider is how crucial it is to give your business users good, easy-to-use tools for smart visualization, plug n’ play predictive analysis and self-serve data preparation. It is one thing to SAY you want your business users empowered and accountable. It is another to expect them to use tools that are designed for IT or analysts or to leverage dashboards that are restrictive and frustrating.
Data democratization does not involve the process of diversifying data so that there is something for everyone. It involves the democratization of meaningful ACCESS to data! If you don’t think your business users need data, you need to think about the tasks you assign these users every day. We live in an era of employee accountability and empowerment and most enterprises have already realized the need for access to data and the ways in which business users can leverage this data to fulfill their role, accomplish activities and sustain performance.
