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Building a successful data and analytics strategy

Kirsten Doyle
By Kirsten Doyle, ITWeb contributor.
Johannesburg, 22 Feb 2018

Vast amounts of data are generated daily by a variety of 'things'. Social media, mobile devices, sensors, and many other sources create burgeoning data and are causing organisations to fall into the trap of thinking that collecting as much data as possible will see them become data-driven organisations, and survive the next wave of innovation.

Other businesses have invested in data lakes, Hadoop and other technologies to achieve the same goal. However, too often they cannot use this data to extract any meaningful business value.

So says Bongani Mbatha, analytics manager at Woolworths, who will be presenting on 'Winning with Analytics through Strategy - How to build and implement a successful data and analytics strategy in a fast moving world', at the ITWeb Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit 2018, to be held on 14 and 15 March at The Forum in Bryanston.

Speaking of how the pace of change has affected data and analytics strategies, he says: "Strategies have fallen behind the changes and many of them have become irrelevant."

According to him, most businesses adopt an approach that develops a strategy, files it, then embarks on a five-year implementation journey only to find that by then things have changed so much that when they look at the actual strategy, they wonder what they were thinking in the first place. "It becomes worse if the people who were involved in developing the strategy have moved on."

ITWeb BI & Analytics Summit 2018

Register now to attend the BI & Analytics Summit 2018 at The Forum, Bryanston on 13 - 15 March 2018. Frans Vermaak will join other industry leaders in discussing their experience of the best practices for business intelligence and analytics. For the most up-to-date agenda, click here.

To find out more and register for the ITWebBI & Analytics Summit 2018, go to: http://v2.itweb.co.za/event/itweb/business-intelligence-summit-2018/?page=agendaday1

Mbatha says strategies should evolve as the environment changes. "BI and analytics leaders must be on their toes, implementing, reviewing and adjusting their strategic direction as changes in the environment take place. They should also be taking clues from the business strategy, these days business strategies evolve very quickly."

In his talk, Mbatha will cover the five elements of a successful data and analytics strategy, and will focus on the practical steps, from conception to implementation. He will also give examples of business value gained by embedding small analytics insights into business processes.

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