The Client is a prominent Indian construction and infrastructure company providing services in numerous sectors, including highway, rail, mining, energy, irrigation, and water supply. Known for their expertise in managing large-scale and complex projects, the Client has played a significant role in enhancing the India infrastructure and has achieved robust growth and financial stability. The Client is currently managing sixty two (62) projects and employs more than 5000 employees in numerous market sectors across India.
Tag: Data Literacy
Making the Case for Citizen Data Scientists!
When a business decides to undertake a data democratization initiative, improve data literacy and create a role for Citizen Data Scientists, the management team often assumes that business users will be eager to participate, and that assumption can cause these initiatives to fail.
Avoid Complex Analytics Solutions (Your Users Will Hate)
When a business is considering a business intelligence or analytics solution, it is important to recognize that today’s solutions are very different than the solutions of the past. Not only do they include more analytical techniques and features, but they have come a long way in providing access to sophisticated analytics for the average enterprise team member.
Harvard Business Review Analytics Service reports that
a) businesses can substantially improve business performance by giving frontline workers modern self-service analytics tools to enable fast intelligent action and,
b) not all self-service analytics provide this effective approach.
The Harvard Business Review Analytics Service surveyed nearly 500 executives and found that they reported significant performance improvement when they empowered frontline workers with augmented analytics. More than one-third of those surveyed noted improvement in customer and employee engagement and in product and service quality.
While some businesses may still be using business intelligence and analytics that are designed for data scientists and IT professionals, most of those are actively working to upgrade and/or migrate to augmented analytics and solutions that are designed for self-serve business user access.
Here’s why:
- Search-based, self-serve analytics provides swift access to data and familiar natural language processing (NLP) search capability so business users can ask a question, get an answer and drill down to discover the root cause of issues. There is no need for the user to wait for IT or a data scientist to produce a report. They can continue to work on a task or a problem with full insight into results, challenges and possibilities.
- The enterprise can enable data democratization and data literacy across the business landscape, thereby ensuring that there is a rapid response to market and competitive changes and to changing customer buying behavior.
- Business users can leverage their industry knowledge and functional skillset and combine data insight with experience to produce the best results.
- Intuitive, easy-to-use solutions help to combat user resistance and ensure user adoption. While there are always cultural issues surrounding this type of adoption and the perceived changes in responsibilities, when business users see the value of having crucial information at their fingertips, the enterprise can ease the transition and ensure user adoption.
- No matter the role of the user, the team can enjoy the benefits of augmented analytics and make the transition to Citizen Data Scientists to improve collaboration, data sharing and fact-based decision-making.
- The business can understand quality and maintenance issues, refine customer targeting and marketing optimization, and make appropriate financial investments, and they can analyze trends and patterns and make forecasts and predictions.
- When the enterprise adopts these tools and techniques, they allow Citizen Data Scientists to perform analytics on a day-to-day basis and, where appropriate to effectively interact with and collaborate with the IT team and data scientists to refine data and prepare it for more strategic initiatives, so there is a seamless handoff from the business user to the analytical community, when and as necessary.
When the business is ready to acquire augmented analytics or to upgrade from existing, more restrictive solutions designed for professional analytical resources, it is important to choose the right solution – one with sophisticated tools that are presented in an intuitive user interface with auto-suggestions and recommendations to assist business users, and ample personalization of dashboards and reports.
With the right IT consulting partner, you can select and implement an Augmented Analytics Solution with business intelligence (BI) and advanced capabilities, and ensure that every user can leverage these tools, no matter their skillset or technical capabilities. Explore our free white paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI Tools.’
Original Post: Choose Augmented Analytics Designed for Business Users!
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.
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!’
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.’
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!
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.
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!
When an enterprise undertakes an Augmented Analytics project, it is typically doing so because it wishes to initiate data democratization, improve data literacy among its team members and create Citizen Data Scientists. The organization looks for a solution that is easy enough for its business users and intuitive enough to produce clear results; one that also provides sophisticated functionality and features and will produce a suitable Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
white-paper-enabling-business-optimization-and-expense-reduction-through-the-use-of-augmented-analytics
No matter the reason or the goal, when an enterprise chooses the right Augmented Analytics solution and carefully plans for and executes its implementation, it can optimize business results, reduce expenses and improve its market position, customer satisfaction and user adoption, and it is key to transforming business users to Citizen Data Scientists to improve results and team skills. Here, we examine the benefits of Augmented Analytics and how to plan and successfully execute an Augmented Analytics initiative.
Smart Data Visualization and Personalized Dashboards Improve Data Insight and Team Collaboration!
Augmented Analytics was designed to remove the barriers erected by the traditional business intelligence and analytics solutions. In order to achieve data democratization and improve data literacy among team members within an enterprise, the organization must provide simple, easy-to-understand solutions that display analytical results in a way that is meaningful and intuitive.
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.
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.
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!
