When a business considers business intelligence and augmented analytics initiatives, it should include Embedded BI and Integration APIs to improve ROI, TCO and user adoption. If an enterprise does not understand the risks of data silos, and restrictive analytics solutions, it is not likely to make the right choices. With appropriate planning and execution, businesses can create a solid foundation, and provide benefits for all users, managers and IT staff.
If you are a business manager or a senior executive, it is likely you have heard about Digital Transformation in industry conferences or read about it in journals and publications. When you decide to explore the benefits of Digital Transformation, you will likely conclude that the payoff is well worth the effort. But, that still doesn’t get you to your goal. If your own team is too busy or does not have the skills to accomplish the task, you are not alone. Most businesses are engaging experts to help them on the Digital Transformation journey.
Why do your business team members need to be data literate? If your business is like most, it struggles to keep up with trends and to understand whether, when and how to implement enterprise-wide initiatives. You must convince your senior team and board of directors that these changes (which may be time-consuming and costly) are worth the effort. So, when a business manager says that her/his team needs to be more data literate, these same questions will arise.
If you own an auto mechanics business, you know that tools and equipment are key to your business success. Without the right tools, your mechanics cannot perform routine tasks, test modern automobile computerized systems or serve customers. The same holds true for any other type of business. Your team needs the right tools and equipment to perform routine tasks and to analyze and solve problems.
If your business is trying to decide whether to launch a Digital Transformation initiative, you may be wondering how this effort will affect your team members. Will your team perceive this effort as adding work to their already heavy workload, or resent having to learn new systems and solutions? Will your team benefit from the initiative or will you be challenged to convince them of the benefits the enterprise will reap and why they should care enough about the organization to sacrifice their own productivity or to learn something new?
All the data in the world can’t help you improve your business results unless you can sift through it and see it in a way that tells a story – a story that leads you to a conclusion, helps you solve a problem or allows you to see how your business can grow, change and succeed. Columnar reports and a sea of data are a barrier to insight. But, that doesn’t have to be YOUR problem.
If your business is trying to achieve Digital Transformation, you know how challenging the initiative can be. Digital Transformation (aka Dx) is focused on improving the business by capitalizing on technology and software solutions to increase effectiveness, productivity, collaboration and time to market. If planned and executed properly, it helps the business to achieve agility, improve customer satisfaction and increase scalability as the business changes and grows.
If your business is trying to incorporate data analytics into the fabric of day-to-day work, you will need to get your users to adopt analytical tools. The way forward is not all that complicated. The solution you choose must take an augmented analytics approach, one that includes simple search analytics, ala Google search. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and NLP Search tools are key to this approach as they allow business users to ask simple questions and get answers. If a user does not have to create complex queries or look to business analysts or data scientists or IT professionals, that user can incorporate data into information sharing, reporting, presentations and recommendations to management.
As Gartner says, Digital Transformation is ‘the changes associated with digital technology application and integration into all aspects of human life and society. It is the move from the physical to digital’.
The Corona Virus (COVID-19) has taught us many hard lessons, not the least of which is the importance of being prepared, the importance of anticipating what may be just around the corner, and the importance of being able to theorize, hypothesize and predict. All of these skills are amply supplied by data scientists and analysts. But, in today’s world, it is crucial to prepare and educate the average business team member to improve data literacy and engage in digital transformation (Dx). As the idea of data popularity becomes more mainstream, and team members and industries embrace data sharing and fact-based decision making, our understanding of looming issues, collaborative possibilities and possible solutions to address these issues will improve and so will our response time and efficacy.
