Analytics governance is essential for informed decision-making, maintaining analytics and reporting integrity, and supporting consistent business decision-making processes. The ZenTalk 5 webinar with industry thought leader Donald Farmer of TreeHive Strategy and ZenOptics CTO Heena Sood provided an in-depth analysis of the challenges and importance of analytics governance in current business operations. The important insights from the discussion have been summarized for a quick read.
The role of information stewards is to be the experts who facilitate the collaboration between business units and IT departments. These individuals are critical in curating and managing analytics assets effectively for appropriate utilization by business users. The discussion outlined the importance of the stewardship role in formal governance structures, particularly for compliance and adapting to the changing nature of analytics technologies.
Strong governance is especially critical because of factors such as market consolidation, evolving technical architectures, and the growing complexity of analytics systems. Challenges like scalability, managing distributed systems, and self-service governance require strategic responses to uphold effective analytics governance.
Both Donald and Heena conveyed that governance should not be seen as a constraint but as a foundation for safe innovation. Properly implemented governance gives organizations the assurance to try new ideas and adapt to changes in business models and technology, and establishes confidence for end users that they are making decisions based on accurate and appropriate information.
Effective analytics governance involves selecting pertinent KPIs that align with strategic business goals, establishing solid report management procedures, and using analytics governance platforms to gain insights into the utilization of data and the life cycles of reports. Such platforms can provide visibility and insights regarding the overall analytics ecosystem, and will help with rationalization and cleanup efforts – as well as maintaining a clean, streamlined reporting environment over time.
The main takeaway of the webinar is that analytics governance is a critical element in managing data responsibly and with strategic intent. Governance enables organizations to approach analytics complexities with greater assurance and insight. Based on extensive experience and research, Donald and Heena offered substantial and prescriptive guidance on analytics governance, spurring important discussions on its application in organizations. Listen to the ZenTalk series with Donald Farmer here.
In the context of data-centric organizations, the significance of analytics governance is becoming increasingly apparent for guiding decision-making and ensuring data confidence. The ZenTalk 4 webinar provided an exploration of analytics governance, discussing its essential role in contemporary business practices. Below are the summarized insights and key points from the discussion with Donald Farmer, industry expert and Principal at TreeHive Strategy.
The webinar began with an explanation of analytics governance, highlighting its importance in creating an organized framework for managing analytics assets. The discussion detailed essential aspects of analytics governance, such as defining ownership and establishing governance processes, which are fundamental to a successful analytics governance strategy.
Rather than imposing constraints, analytics governance aims to enable effective decision-making. Through governance mechanisms, organizations can foster data accuracy, encourage standardized practices, and boost confidence in decision making. The importance of governance in fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration was a focal point of the discussion.
Technology is crucial in supporting analytics governance, with platforms like ZenOptics offering vital capabilities for enabling and supporting analytics governance processes efficiently. Technology aids in managing assets, defining ownership, and tracking usage, thereby enabling organizations to apply analytics governance policies effectively and generate data-driven insights.
Key aspects of analytics governance, such as asset quality, asset rationalization, ownership establishment, and lifecycle management, were examined during the webinar. Concentrating on these elements helps organizations streamline operations, minimize report sprawl, and provide decision-makers with accurate and pertinent information.
The aim of analytics governance extends beyond compliance; it is about enhancing efficiency and fostering innovation. Organizations can achieve higher productivity and sustainable growth by optimizing analytics workflows, proactively resolving issues, and standardizing processes for end users to use data and analytics.
As the organizations evolve, adapting analytics governance strategies becomes essential. The webinar stressed continuous improvement, change management, and effective communication as key to the ongoing success of analytics governance efforts.
The ZenTalk 4 webinar offered valuable perspectives on the significant role of analytics governance in business. With a systematic approach, effective technology use, and a focus on data and analytics quality and precision, organizations can adeptly manage the complexities of analytics lifecycle management and confidently make strategic decisions based on trusted analytics.
For a comprehensive understanding of analytics governance and its relevance to contemporary business practices, access the complete ZenTalk 4 recording.
Organizations seek advanced technologies to gain competitive advantages over their rivals and to improve operational performance. In our recent ZenTalk 3 webinar, guest speaker Claudia Imhoff and ZenOptics’ Heena Sood explored how artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly affect analytics. This session, aimed at strategically minded executives, provided strategies for utilizing AI to enhance business operations.
The discussion on the evolution of AI provided a historical context for understanding augmented intelligence and machine learning. Claudia Imhoff and Heena Sood traced the development of AI, highlighting its progression from theoretical concepts to practical applications that enhance human decision-making. This brief historical overview established the basis for augmented intelligence’s role in analytics.
Slightly different from AI, augmented intelligence is a concept that uses machine learning and AI to complement human intelligence. In this particular discussion, the speakers explained that augmented intelligence is perfectly positioned to simplify analytics by automating tasks and offering intelligent recommendations, thus speeding up insight generation and promoting a data-centric culture.
For example, AI-driven algorithms can analyze user behavior patterns to predict future needs and suggest relevant insights in real time. This capability not only accelerates the discovery of actionable insights but also fosters a culture of data-driven decision-making at scale. By harnessing the power of augmented intelligence, organizations can realize greater efficiencies and support sustained growth in the rapidly changing business environment.
The webinar emphasized the need for scalable, efficient analytics management. Augmented intelligence tools are crucial for proactively tackling issues and fostering innovation within analytics operations.
For example, AI-powered analytics platforms can automatically detect anomalies, identify performance bottlenecks, and recommend optimizations to enhance platform efficiency. By leveraging augmented intelligence tools, organizations can streamline operations, reduce manual efforts, and unlock new levels of productivity and innovation.
Addressing scalability, issue identification, and platform optimization is essential for effective data use in decision-making. This involves optimizing various aspects of the analytics infrastructure to ensure scalability, reliability, and performance.
Claudia Imhoff’s remarks on augmented intelligence highlight its role in improving work processes and decision-making speed.
“It’s ultimately helping everybody be more intuitive about the way that they go about things. And this … artificial intelligence augments the way that humans work.” This closing remark reiterates augmented intelligence’s value in driving business efficiency and growth.
The ZenTalk 3 webinar provided invaluable insights into the transformative potential of augmented intelligence in unified analytics. By adopting a pragmatic approach, leveraging metadata effectively, and prioritizing a people-centric mindset, organizations that innovate will grow in today’s dynamic business environment.
Listen to the full ZenTalk 3 recording for a deeper understanding of augmented intelligence’s benefits in analytics.
Self-service analytics is the practice of enabling people to easily access and understand information in today’s data-driven world. In ZenOptics’ ZenTalk #2, prominent data and analytics expert Dr. Claudia Imhoff explores the degrees of self-service analytics, offering meaningful information on its goals, difficulties, and the crucial role of governance.
Empowerment is the first step toward a self-service analytics journey. According to Dr. Imhoff, self-service analytics refers to “analytical environments that enable business users to become more self-reliant and less dependent on IT.” This offers people the ability to leverage data without being constrained by conventional technical complexity or the need to have an IT professional create the request report or dashboard.
Making analytical tools user-friendly is a primary goal and the cornerstone of self-service analytics. It entails putting less emphasis on intricate coding and programming and more on easy-to-use interfaces that let people point, click, and obtain insights with ease.
Dr. Imhoff stresses that self-service analytics, however, shouldn’t result in seclusion. Instead of having people operate in silos, the goal should be to produce analytics that are advantageous to the entire company. Being self-sufficient in analytics does not mean being exclusive; rather, it means opening up analytics to other team members and working towards a common understanding of information.
A crucial component of the self-service analytics equation is governance. Good governance ensures better decision-making and confidence by upholding standards and processes as well as guaranteeing the reliability of data. It answers queries about the origins of the analytics, their development process, and their dependability.
Accountability follows from good governance, which also keeps companies from having to start from scratch. It is the cohesive element that keeps self-service analytics from sprawling into a mess of analytics chaos.
Dr. Imhoff lists the following four main goals for self-service analytics:
Ease of Use: The analytics tools need to be user-friendly, eliminating the need for extensive coding or technical expertise. The aim is to expand the audience’s access to analytics.
Ease of Consumption: Analytics should be easy to understand. It is ineffective to have complexity just for the sake of complexity. Improved data literacy, interpretation and more comprehensible data-driven insights should be the main goals of self-service analytics.
Fast Deployment and Easy Management: Self-service analytics solutions should be quick to deploy and manage. To minimize the duplication of effort, users should be able to find existing analytics assets with ease.
Accessibility: Ensuring that all analytics assets are secured and appropriately available to those who need them requires the creation of a centralized platform, such as a BI portal and an analytics catalog. With multiple BI tools and reporting applications in an organization, a BI portal provides a centralized location to access reports and dashboards while the analytics catalog provides the means to easily search and discover the information that is needed and available.
Enhancing self-service analytics through the balance of empowerment and governance helps organizations realize the value of their data and analytics investments by creating an analytics environment where reports and dashboards are secured, easy to access, discover and utilize. A balanced solution that blends governance with empowerment via user-friendly analytics tools is needed for success. ZenTalk 2 offers insightful information about these important facets of contemporary analytics.
Watch ZenTalk #2 to see the entire conversation about self-service analytics and governance. To continue learning about how analytics is changing, please watch ZenTalk #3.
The ability to quickly access and analyze information is required in today’s competitive business environment. Self-service business intelligence (BI) and analytics tools have completely transformed the way that businesses utilize data – often to great benefit. However, organizations now also have to deal with some growing challenges and issues introduced by it.
The ZenTalk with featured speaker Claudia Imhoff entitled, “What Have We Done? The Mounting Problems with Self-Service BI and Analytics Part 1 of 3,” explores the difficulties of self-service BI. We have summarized the significant takeaways in the form of four primary challenges organizations face.
One of the glaring issues organizations face is the inconsistency in data and the subsequent trust issues that arise. In many organizations, different stakeholders come to meetings armed with diverse sets of data and reports that often include conflicting data points. This inconsistency in data definitions and calculations within reports can breed skepticism and mistrust in analytics. ZenTalk speakers highlighted a real-world example where a financial services company incurred a staggering $40 million rounding error due to the use of incorrect analytics assets. Although this is a dramatic example, such mishaps underscore the need for standardization and data definition uniformity in the analytics process.
Another prevalent challenge in the realm of self-service BI is report sprawl. The ease with which modern BI tools allow users to create reports and dashboards has led to a proliferation of reports and dashboards. The issue arises when anyone, regardless of expertise or understanding of the inherent business rules in data source structure, can generate reports. The consequence? A lack of control over the quality and accuracy of these reports. Plus, other people in the organization do not know which reports or dashboards should be used for analyses and decision making.
While data governance is a priority in many organizations, the usage of data in the form of reports and dashboards requires analytics governance as a complement to data governance programs. This layer of governance ensures that the analytics assets are accurate, relevant, and in alignment with organizational goals. It’s not just about managing data; it’s about managing the entire analytics process. The absence of governance not only results in report proliferation but also contributes to unverified accuracy of reports.
Perhaps the most critical issue of self-service BI and analytics challenges are the direct impact on decision making. When analytics assets lack standardization and are riddled with inconsistencies, individuals within an organization risk making decisions based on inaccurate data. Further, with the proliferation of reports that may be similar in nature, a decision-maker may not know which report or dashboard contains the appropriate information for use. This lack of validation can lead to a fractured decision-making process. The mounting problems in self-service BI are not merely operational issues; they can significantly impact the strategic direction of organizations and, in some cases, the company’s bottom line.
The ZenTalk concludes by highlighting how critical it is to identify and resolve the issues surrounding self-service BI. Critical issues that require attention include data inconsistency, report sprawl, the necessity for analytics governance, and the possible detrimental effect on decision-making. To realize the value of data as an asset, organizations must resolve the challenges with self-service BI and analytics.
To listen to the full ZenTalk discussing these challenges, and to hear the follow-up segments on how organizations can tackle some of the issues, please click here.