There’s a well-established business case for using analytics to make intelligent decisions faster – it’s no secret that access to analytics can give companies a competitive edge.
Unfortunately, for some companies analytics does not make it to day-to-day operations. This means rank-and-file employees are making decisions without the benefits.
“If executives and rank-and-file employees embraced analytics as part of their professional identity, as a skill set for which they took personal responsibility, organizations would be able to create unbreakable bonds with customers and provide shareholders with above-market returns,” said Thornton A. May at computerworld.com.
Using analytics can give employees the data visualizations they need to consume large amounts of data quickly and easily. It allows all users to become more self-reliant and less dependent on IT.
Making the Change
In order for this to happen, companies need to reach a middle ground between information workers having free access to the data and analytics they need, while still giving IT necessary oversight into the security of the data.
Organizations are currently test driving new roles in an effort to find a combination that gives them the “fastest and least disruptive path to enterprise competence in creating competitive advantage via differentiated information management (a.k.a. analytics),” says May. These roles have titles like chief analytics officer, chief digital officer, chief data officer, and data scientist.
According to May, “What we have learned through the painful birthing process of other C-level executives such as the CIO and the CISO is that their success depends on how they relate to the rest of us. Getting the full value from analytics will require changing behavior across the enterprise.”
In order to start this type of behavior change, Stanford professor B.J. Fogg at behaviormodel.org postulates that motivation, ability, and a trigger are needed. Analytics can provide insight to create the trigger. It is up to the organization to give the employee the ability to take action, although it is up to the employee to be motivated to do so.
Next Steps:
- Try Spotfire and start discovering meaningful insights in your own data.
- Subscribe to our blog to stay up to date on the latest insights and trends in big data and big data analytics.
