So you attended a huge Analytics conference and got to take home a lot of insights how other organizations and industries are utilizing their data thru analytics, what’s next?
The above scenario is very typical for a lot of people attending conferences, events and workshops. So you go to your manager and tells him/her of all the insights you gathered, then suddenly you are tasked to create a justification or business case on why do your company needs to go through this journey, now what do you do?
Some people suddenly jumps into creating a list of capabilities or functionalities that they want (or what they think the organization needs). Well, this is really not wrong, IF YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NEEDS. Technology and Capabilities should be an answer to a defined business need and not the other way around (which is typical to happen – Force-fitting technologies to business).
In my own experience, I have heard a lot of times people telling things like: what their organization needs is AI, AI will solve our problem, we need Machine Learning and so on and so forth. But once you ask them how they will use it, then they always go blank or answer back “that’s the trend and where any organization should go moving forward.” Though the latter statement is true for all organizations, it doesn’t mean that you need to jump right-in to this trend without understanding how do you want to apply analytics within your business.
Now, what do you really need to do? Here are possible approaches that you can take:
- Have a deeper understanding of your organization’s business pain. If your current role does not give you enough visibility to get this information, then talk to the right people/group within your organization to get this and explain to them the reason why you are asking for this alignment.
- Build a Use Case or get information online on how other companies within your industry are utilizing analytics and see how it fits to your organization. Remember RESEARCH is IMPORTANT.
- Talk to different vendors or suppliers and request them for presentations regarding previous implementation. Great future partners will provide information to help you on your journey and it is up to you to asses if they are overselling or not.
- Have a good understanding of your organization’s business objectives and create valuable use cases that can support the company’s vision.
You are not limited to one approach, utilizing all the approaches above will give you a better understanding of your business and how you can help achieve the company’s goals through your analytics initiative. Goodluck in your initiative!
More tips will be posted in the upcoming articles.