Data Analytics Tools Succeed When Biz Culture is Aligned

Does Your Business Culture Support Data Analytics and Data-Driven Action?

Data analytics is not just for day-to-day business intelligence. These days, pretty much every business has some form of data analytics software. If your organization has embraced data democratization, you are probably encouraging business users to use BI analytics and, hopefully, your senior executives, middle managers and data scientists are using these BI analytics tools for strategic initiatives, as well.

In order to align the tasks and activities of the organization to achieve goals and objectives, the enterprise must have an overarching vision of how best to cascade Business Intelligence Analytics Software and how to use and share the analysis to make the best decisions and to examine and understand what the data is telling the user.

Gartner research suggests, ‘To make this collaboration happen, business and IT must work together on vision, strategy, roles, and metrics. Everyone is going to have to change, and everyone is going to have to learn.”

Deep Dive Analytics can and will provide crucial insight and information but the organization must take action on what it discovers, or all that insight is for naught. Let’s use an example. If a senior management team is considering buying another, smaller company, or expanding into a new market, or creating a new product to compete in a different market, the data analytics tool can offer great insight into the advisability of each of these actions. Furthermore, if the business is using visual analytics, KPIs, and other tools, the integrated data from all systems within the enterprise can present a clear picture and recommendations for action.

BUT, the culture within the organization must support the use of the data and analysis provided by the BI Analytics Tool to make the RIGHT decision. At every level of the organization from individual users to team leaders, middle managers, IT staff and senior executives, the enterprise must be aligned and prepared to use the resulting business intelligence to support and make decisions.

If an enterprise decides to spend the time, money and effort to implement Data Analytics Tools, and to train users, it must commit to taking strategic, operational and tactical actions based on the analysis provided by these tools and to put aside the guesswork and opinion deeply rooted in the old corporate cultures.