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A complete introduction to data and analytics at scale

Scaling data gives organisations the flexibility to align analytics capabilities with user needs, skill levels and expectations.

Johannesburg, 06 Feb 2020

Data is risk mitigation. It’s opportunity forecasting. It’s behavioural analysis, and so much more. But how does a business magically create data-driven insights that pervade every level of the business to every stakeholder? What’s the angle of attack and how do we start?

First coined in 2008 by social network giants LinkedIn and Facebook, the job title of Data Scientist has been dubbed "the sexiest profession of the 21st century". Over a decade down the line, data analytics has become the foundation for how modern enterprises and governments organise and execute goals, and most importantly, remain competitive.

As the South African economy continues to tighten its belt, businesses are more at risk of becoming irrelevant than ever before as customers become increasingly budget-conscious.

Cutting costs and getting lean is the name of the game, and it all starts with trusted data-driven business intelligence.

Learn how Information Builders makes insight an integral part of organisational systems and workflows with the Embedded BI white paper.

Tapping into the data goldmine

The reality is that for most businesses, the data, solutions and cloud infrastructure are all there. They just need the right partner and platform to help unlock the hidden value of data, and to do it at every level of the organisation, from the CEO’s desk right down to the workforce on the frontlines. 

There is also the customer and partner part of any business. Let’s not forget suppliers.

Scale means delivering trusted data and analytics to all stakeholders: delivering valuable and actionable information based on trusted data that delivers insights that benefit desired outcomes.

ITWeb Business Intelligence Summit 2020

ITWeb's 15th annual Business Intelligence Summit takes place in March at the Sandton Convention Centre. Themed ‘Enabling actionable insights through data, analytics and AI’, this event will give delegates the advice they need to take their BI, data, analytics and AI projects to the next level. The early-bird discount expires on 16 February, click here to register your seat today!

A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership document, commissioned by IBM, reads in part as follows: “Enterprises today are sitting on an untapped goldmine – their data – and they are looking to use it to transform their businesses by improving decision-making across the organisation, accelerating innovation, improving the customer experience, and driving operational efficiency. Extracting this value has been fraught with challenges ranging from siloed data and outdated tools to a lack of skills, misaligned teams and shadow IT.”

If businesses are going to utilise the true value of data, they need to be able to embrace large quantities of data generated by both traditional and emerging sources.

It doesn’t stop there. They also need to take that data overload, make it fit for purpose and provide relevant, easy-to-understand insights that all stakeholders can instantly act on. This is the heart of data and analytics at scale.

This is best achieved with a unified platform for integrating, cleansing and mastering information. Find out how to take full advantage of your business information to ensure success with this white paper by Information Builders: Build a Thriving Business.

How to do data at scale

Today, the use cases most often associated with a data and analytics investment are dashboards for executive decision-making, data discovery for analysts, and advanced analytics for data scientists.

This helps guide the business. Unfortunately, it also only represents a small portion of the enterprise. In fact, analytics adoption usually stalls at about 17%.

It would be better to scale data and analytics to more people throughout the organisation, particularly those who run or execute the business. And it would be a game-changer if data analytics was extended outside the organisation, ie to customers and partners.

The analytics that these end-users receive should align with those that guide the business, but they’re more focused on solving immediate problems or answering specific questions. Often, they’re needed in real time, for in-the-moment decision-making. However, it is the effort to build analytics applications for operational employees, from frontline staff to non-technical workers, from business partners to customers, that results in measurable value and tangible ROI.

Operational analytics makes everyone a better decision-maker and has the power to change behaviour by creating an insights-driven enterprise. This realisation across the business will foster widespread adoption.

Different ways to scale

What does it mean to scale? There are three ways:

  • Scale to more users. From three data scientists and the executive team to two million users across a major financial services organisation 
  • Scale to more kinds of users. Executives, analysts and data scientists, as well as non-technical employees, business partners, customers and even citizens 
  • Scale to more use cases. From dashboards and visual discovery to decision support, performance metrics, financial reporting, customer-facing analytics, and applications that suggest a course of action or even automate a process completely

The benefits of data at scale

Scaling gives organisations the flexibility to align analytics capabilities with user needs, skill levels and expectations. Essentially, it aligns the user experience with the right user and the right information at the right time. In the end, what this provides is ease of use for all users, enhancing the way they can interact with data (e.g. In-Document Analytics, infographics, voice recognition, mobile, etc).

Scaling with the right partner

The complexity of implementing data and analytics into business strategy is on the rise. It’s becoming more and more unsustainable, if not impossible, to build these functionalities in-house, and to do it before your competitor races ahead. A specialist partner is the way to go.

Look at partners like Information Builders. The company uniquely scales value throughout customer organisations with its own end-to-end data and analytics platforms. Information Builders’ WebFOCUS platform has always yielded superior scalability, but multiple enhancements optimise the use of system resources and improve performance to help customers plan for large deployments and advanced analytics.

To put it into perspective, WebFOCUS has been involved with myriad applications across multiple divisions at U.S. Bank, some of which support over two million users.

In addition, Information Builders offers a learning platform on its Web site to help organisations across industries gain a vital understanding of how data and analytics at scale can both enhance strategy and provide a firm foundation to execute and better ensure favourable business outcomes, in and beyond the enterprise.

Find out how you can do this and more with WebFOCUS Total Access Cloud by downloading Cloud Analytics Solutions Brief.

Start your journey today

Data is a by-product of every business, and technology has made it easier than ever before to operationalise data and monetise insights. As more of your competitors adopt this approach, can you afford to be left behind? Every journey starts with the first step. Finding the right partner is that step. Information Builders can help your business make your data work for your bottom line, and at scale.

Contact us today:

http://www.infobuild.co.za/

johan.jurd@infobuild.co.za

(+27) 011 064 5668

Editorial contacts

Angela Mace
CRM and Events director
(011) 807 3294
angela@itweb.co.za