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Democratizing data analytics across the business value chain
Democratizing data analytics across the business value chain

January 9, 2023

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Over the past decade, a leap in technology advancement has caused exponential growth in data. Simultaneously, it has become increasingly challenging to collect, store, analyze, and manage data, while keeping costs under control.

As the volume of data and its uses increase, organizations will need to democratize data – in other words, to make it available to employees and stakeholders for decision making, while ensuring it is secure from unauthorized use.

Democratizing data enhances communication and data-driven decision making throughout an organization by empowering stakeholders with quicker access to meaningful data. Data democratization decreases time to market by systemizing recurring non-automated activities.

The role of business leaders

Given data democratization will have a massive cultural impact throughout an organization, top-level leadership buy-in is essential. Business heads need to convey the strategy, the need for operational change, lead the process, connect consistently, and maintain order despite challenges or roadblocks. Without leadership, contributors will not follow.

For business leaders to successfully democratize data across their organization and implement a data-driven ecosystem, they need to keep stakeholders well-informed. Data analytics teams must create an enterprise-wide data governance strategy to help manage data for actionable insights. Lack of this strategy will impede an enterprise’s ability to transform into the new paradigm.

Creating an effective data management architecture

An effective data management architecture needs to include a well-defined mix of processes, tools and software so that all stakeholders can access and utilize the data.

Process definition generally encompasses a range of management guiding principles to include data sources, access, ownership, data storage, governance, security, tools, and training. When done correctly, organizations will maintain a database of record, which is then accessed by all approved users across the organization. This approach ensures that everyone accessing this information is formulating their decisions based on the same data.

A data-driven culture

Moving to data democratization requires a cultural alteration. Stakeholders will need to adopt a data-driven culture. Each user will need to determine how data feeds into their operations and share data across workgroups to propel the decision-making process.

To prepare stakeholders for this change, training investments will be required. Business leaders will need to instruct users on how to access and use data to build confidence to make knowledgeable decisions. Effective change-management practices are needed for data governance and to inspire users to seek the needed competencies.

Industry-led approaches to data democratization

An ever-increasing volume of data resides in siloed systems across all industries. Integrating and analyzing that data can pose challenges in governance and agility, resulting in compliance issues, lower sales, and missed opportunities. Cloud has become the de facto standard to store, find, consume, share, and govern data across the enterprise.

In logistics and supply chain, many organizations have implemented data-driven decision making. With data abundance enabled by an exploding number of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, organizations face challenges of limited data exchange across upstream and downstream operations as well as inefficiencies in using external data. Cloud-based solutions leverage new and emerging technologies, such as insights driven by artificial intelligence (AI), to predict demand, uplift quality, automate and optimize delivery, and provide real-time visibility of inventory. Data governance strategies are helping improve the efficiency and economics of operations and avoid supply chain disruptions.

Within financial services, technology has become a major pillar to democratize banking to the masses. Integrating data across various players, such as payment processors and aggregators in the banking and financial ecosystem, is helping deliver value creation and enhanced customer experiences. Additionally, with so much money flowing through banking systems, there are inherent risks from fraud and arbitrage. Streaming data is helping enterprises stay ahead of threats, to combat consumer fraud, anti-money-laundering, and currency fluctuations.

The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry is known for its plethora of competing products and quick-changing customer loyalties. In such an environment, enterprises need to harness data to exceed their customers’ ever-changing needs and wants. CPG companies must constantly evolve their product portfolios with new lines or line extensions; however, these changes can create increased complexity with manufacturing, supply chain, and merchandising. Leveraging the cloud for data management increases business agility to maintain the balance between efficiency and financial goals, such as revenue and margins.

All organizations will become data-driven enterprises, and cloud will continue to be the game changer for storing, securing, managing, and governing that data. Enterprises that have tapped into the power of cloud to decentralize data ownership will drive exponential business value, enhance the customer experience, and be competitively positioned in the global economy.

About the author:

Nidhi Srivastava

Vice President and Global Head, Google Business Unit, Tata Consultancy Services

Click here to view author’s full profile.

LinkedIn: Click here

 

 

 


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