Your organization has invested in data – collecting, cleaning, integration. It has invested in analytics – tools, data scientists, business analysts.
What next? What’s needed, to drive the adoption that is the key to payback on analytics investments – the steps taken to ensure that the analytics strategy doesn’t become an example of the ‘Field of Dreams’ (“build it and they will come”) approach to new systems.
The most recent report issued by the Vision to Value (V2V): The Economics of Data best practice community explores this issue. Engaging the Enterprise, One User at a Time wades into a topic that is important to every analytics team, and to the many organizations that are relying on these teams to build the foundations for fact-based insights, decisions and cultures. Based on input from a group of nine Canadian thought leaders – professionals with deep experience in leading analytics initiatives that deliver tangible payback to businesses that invest in data-driven practices – the report delivers relevant business guidance on a key topic.
The report was launched in response to the fact that, while there is widespread awareness of the importance of data in guiding executive decisions, streamlining business processes, driving better engagement with customers and cutting costs, there is no good ‘playbook’ showing how organizations should balance investments in analytics with the actions needed to ensure that fact-based outputs deliver on their promise. “Engaging the Enterprise, One User at a Time” contributes needed insight on this issue.
The report is structured in three main parts:
- Allocating focus across analytics excellence and data use provides a range of professional perspectives on priorities and tactics needed to both deliver best possible insights and to ensuring widespread use of analytics outputs.
- Inspiring data use throughout the organizational hierarchy looks at best practices in integrating data with the daily activities and needs of executives, line management, front line staff and external stakeholders.
- Proven ‘push’ and ‘pull’ tactics drills down into methods that analytics teams can use to help position information at the centre of business operations.
Launch event
As is the case with most V2V reports, the Engaging the Enterprise, One User at a Time report was launched at a meetup hosted by Information Builders at its Canadian headquarters in Toronto. In the first part of the meetup, healthcare executive May Chang delivered a spotlight presentation highlighting lessons learned from her experience in leading analytics initiatives (including at Markham Stouffville Hospital). Ms. Chang’s presentation covered key planning considerations and looked at the roles that can and should be played by executive leads,IT, the data analytics group, users and data champions in driving organizational engagement with information.
Following the spotlight presentation, a three-expert panel including Kavita Khera (director of strategic BI and data analytics for the Condominium Authority of Toronto), Howard Bishansky (director of alliances for CenturyLink) and Tara Myshrall (public sector manager for Information Builders) provided commentary on the key themes covered in the report. The lively discussion regularly spilled into the audience, as numerous additional experts – including several who were contributors to the research – added perspectives on how best to align resource allocation with the twin needs of analytics excellence and broad engagement, on specific keys to inspiring data use by executives, line management and front line staff (and on the connections between tool use at one level and successful adoption at the next), and on tactics and concepts that can be applied across different environments to boost use of and returns on data.
Obtaining the report
Engaging the Enterprise, One User at a Time is available at no charge to professionals who would like to explore ways of connecting investments in analytics with the actions needed to ensure that fact-based insights deliver on their promise. Please follow this link to reach the download registration form.
