Whether you are a business owner, a business executive or a business manager, or you just like to keep up with industry trends, you no doubt have read about the transition of business users to Citizen Data Scientists. The topic has been in industry journals and publications for years, and it is still relevant today.
Gartner has predicted that, ‘30% of organizations will harness the collective intelligence of their analytics communities, outperforming competitors that rely solely on centralized analytics or self-service.’ What does this mean for business Citizen Data Scientist initiatives? It does NOT mean that the organization should turn away from this type of initiative. What it DOES mean is that a business should recognize the value and purpose of each aspect of its analytical community.
Whether you have recently been nominated to become a Citizen Data Scientist or you are considering the value of this type of transition for your business, managers and team members alike often ask exactly what a Citizen Data Scientist can do. According to technology research firm, Gartner, the number of Citizen Data Scientists will grow at five times the rate of traditional data scientists. If that’s the case, there must be something to this trend, right?
The technology research firm, Gartner has predicted that, ‘predictive and prescriptive analytics will attract 40% of net new enterprise investment in the overall business intelligence and analytics market.’ When combined with Citizen Data Scientist initiatives, the adoption and use of predictive modeling and forecasting techniques can be a boon to any enterprise. Team members who have access to augmented analytics and assisted predictive modeling can plan better, predict more accurately and dependably meet goals and objectives.
A business that does not optimize its resources is doomed to fail. In this rapidly changing business environment and market, every organization must make the best of precious human resources. No one has enough funding to hire additional resources to get the job done and, when there are extra funds, those funds are quickly earmarked for new products, marketing and other crucial activities.
If you are a business owner, executive or manager, you have already heard about (and are probably implementing) strategies for Citizen Data Scientists. If you are a business user, you may be hearing rumblings of this in your everyday work and wondering exactly what this type of initiative means for you and why you should consider it beneficial.
By now, every wise business team has acknowledged the advent of digital transformation and the transformation of business users into Citizen Data Scientists. But acknowledging the reality and enabling that reality within the walls of an enterprise are two very different things. Where many businesses fail in implementing the Citizen Data Scientist initiative, it is typical to find that the business has simply decided to deploy the strategy without much planning or culture change. Without understanding the shift in workflow, responsibilities and how the use of data will change the enterprise, it is unlikely that the business will succeed in its Citizen Data Scientist initiative.
While many of you may follow the research and market analytics provided by Gartner, you may sometimes find yourselves wondering if their predictions and market analysis are correct. When it comes to the predicted transformation of business users into Citizen Data Scientists, that particular transition has been happening for a while now. If anything, the global pandemic has simply made the prediction more pressing than ever.
If you are a business manager who wants to enable a Citizen Data Scientist environment, but you find yourself up against resistance, it is often because your business users believe that advanced analytics is just too hard for them to learn and that the use of these types of techniques and systems will slow them down and confuse their otherwise familiar processes.
Many businesses have embraced the Gartner prediction that transforms business users into Citizen Data Scientists to help organizations democratize analytics with simple tools that will improve the quality and timeliness of decisions. You can read white papers, industry articles and other publications that will support and articulate this approach to business flexibility, agility and success. But, if you do not embrace the culture change required to deploy this strategy across your enterprise, your Citizen Data Scientist initiative will not succeed.
