Page 13 - EngineerIT November 2021

ANALYTICS

is important and what is actionable data
becomes a critical balancing act.
Before we even start to spread data
around an organisation, like confetti at an
80s wedding, we need to get the technology
and processes that support the ingestion of
data right. This requires developing a data
fabric, using API-led integration to pool
data sources, and then overlaying this with
analytics tools that don’t need remodelling
every time you want to run an analysis.
The concept behind value analytics is
Democratising data shouldn't derived from the interplay of data, technology,
statistics and business processes. In essence,
to derive value analytics, a company needs to
require a referendum embed analytics in their DNA. So they build
services/applications based on the goal to
either probe responses or derive data, and
they put these processes into the hands of
By Tony Nkuna, Senior Presales Solutions Consultant at TechSoft
more people. Most importantly, the need for
data and analytics are driven down from the
leadership to employees.
he terms democratising data or
democratising analytics are growing in Tooling the democracy
Tpopularity amongst business owners, Democratising analytics is not a case of
especially those hungry to use data more pooling data into a central place and saying
pervasively and gain insights into their to employees they can now “have it”. As
organisation. But there is some confusion mentioned earlier, creating a data fabric is
about how this plays out and some kickback the most critical part of establishing analytics
from data scientists who don’t believe it is as as a best practice in your business. Start with
easy as the marketing material would have fixing, cleaning and structuring data – use data
you believe. virtualisation tools where appropriate and
The theory behind democratising curate the right tools to build a data foundation.
analytics starts with making data more Let your data scientists build reusable
accessible to as many people in a company models and applications that shorten the
as possible. The idea is that by making data time to insights, and that more people in
available, people can drive decisions that your organisation can use. There are tools to
are tangible and better informed. However, help this process; you don’t have to employ
the mechanics are reliant on putting several a team of 100 data specialists to get value
processes and tools in place to ensure that from your data. The right tools will help you
the right data is served to the right people at know what you don’t know, which is where connect people, data and systems and then
the right time. data comes into play. It gives you a view of unify this by offering access to this data
the past and the present – where analytics to your people, allowing you to analyse or
Analytics is a big deal gives you the map to the future. predict from this data comfortably.
Over the last year, we have heard from Culturally, businesses need to shift You will always need experts to build
industry peers how data and analytics their thinking away from data only being out a view of your data and then tools
effectively saved their bacon during a time of understood by the analysts. Instead, if we to deliver these analytics. Democratising
business upheaval caused by the pandemic. embrace an approach where, if they give the process is less about letting everyone
Using data, many businesses were able to this knowledge to all employees, we may run amok building their own; rather it
pivot traditional physical retail strategies into be surprised by the value and input they pertains to training leaders and managers
online consumer facing ones, and others can offer around things we may not have to ask the right questions from data and is
were able to analyse the cost of real estate considered. then achieved by disseminating the right
investments and shrink these to accommodate knowledge, providing the proper training,
a burgeoning remote workforce. Marrying people, processes, data and then passing on the tools.
One thing they all had in common was Pulling your business into the new data era A recent article by Shawn Rogers, VP
their use of analytics to guide their decisions. is a little more challenging. Legacy systems Analytics Strategy and Corporate Marketing
Another is that they have started involving can prove to be a big hurdle to organisations at TIBCO, speaks to how hyperconverged
more people in this process by giving them looking for better access to their data, analytics requires a village. The same
access and insight into all aspects of the whereas SaaS and cloud-based apps might could be said that villages run better as a
business. The adage states that you don’t be flooding your data intake. Knowing what democracy – so should your analytics. n

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