What it takes to implement a good analytics solution

What it takes to implement a good analytics solution

Business analytics is the new acronym in effective business management. Most companies in the world if not already, wish to have a seamless way of accessing information to aid their daily performance management initiatives.

Information is not useful unless processed and relayed in a manner that is easily to understand. Companies are growing wings and as the organizational activities increases day by day, performance management becomes a core component of profitability. Data analytics basically refers to the process of collecting, organizing, analysing and presenting large sets of data to discover patterns and other useful information.

Data Analytics It’s not just about ad hoc analysis, neither is it end month reporting. It is about real-time performance management. There is no doubt that if we meet our individual targets every minute, we will achieve our business goals end month. An impressive repetitive trend if tapped can help the management direct more effort in that one activity. But we need to know where we are and how best we operate at any point in time.

"In this article we attempt to explore what it genuinely takes to implement a sound analytics solution."

Architectural Requirements

1) A well designed transactional database

This can either be structured or unstructured. Good database design is essential to ensure timely execution of an analytics project. With diversification of operational environments, data sources may vary: some may come from from social media, daily operational stats, while others are sourced from ecumenical APIs such as the local stock market

2) Data Warehousing

The main role of this feature is to do cumbersomely hefty processing after which data is then stored securely for front end visualization. A data organization platform has to be built to increase performance and reduce overhead when relaying authentic-time analytics. It is at this point that technologies such as data warehousing come in. A more modern approach requires the utilization of sizably voluminous data architectures such as Hadoop or Spanky. 

3) Data Visualization

Data visualization tools are front end software’s that aide in presentation of data in a pictorial format. They provide an easy to use functionality to create infographics, interactive data visualizations, and motion graphics. As a basic functionality they can connect to processed information lying in the middle tier in this architectural design. There are a variety of tools used to project information to the business. These range from low cost powerful tools such as Ms Excel which offer a similar functionality for organizations which do not have budgets to purchase propriety software’s. Other tools are such as Tableau, QlickView and other commercial software’s. Check out “Data visualization tools performance management analytics”. 

SPECIALIZATION

There is need to create a team of specialist’s to handle specific roles in this process. The onset of development begins with a good transactional database design which requires highly skilled database developers.

Second to that are business operations users who understand the business process. Understanding what the business is the first phase in realizing a useful analytic solution. This exercise requires in-depth skills of data engineers who are well versed with both business and database management skills. The role of data engineers is quite expansive as they are both involved in data collection, database query optimisation as well as data visualization activities. At the core of their role is to deliver a solution needed by the business. A data engineer should have core statistical and programming skills to play their role more expansively. Check out “Data engineers the next frontier in performance management initiatives”

To create effective data stories that enable business make correct decisions, there is need to understand the business objects. 99% of effective analytics solutions lies around comparing inputs and outputs. Business executives are resources who perform their daily tasks to achieve company targets. All an analytics solution does is transform the daily manual monitoring activities to tools that can be accessed anytime. Check out “Effective performance management analytics”

Lack of a sound analytics solution generates tension in a company. Every minute erroneous decisions are made based on personal intuition and experience. Frustrated managers eventually are not able to answer simple questions such as:

Yes you want to make the decision, that’s so brave of you, where is the proof.(Performance appraisal)?

  • Its two weeks down the line, where are we, we need to move? (Progressive analytics)?
  • How comes he got such a huge increment, get me his performance record history over the past one year (Evaluation)?
  • Can we monitor the activities real-time, we need to manage real-time? (Real Time Management)
  • Are we going to hit our targets this month (monitoring and evaluation?)
  • I need a set of charts to present my clients in tomorrow’s meeting, can I get that now? (Business presentation)

After a proper analytic solution implementation, correct and timely insights are realized.

  • Ahhhhhh…., now I know where to hit
  • What happened on 15TH, seems that’s where we lost it?
  • You are doing good, look at the trends
  • This graph doesn’t seem impressive, can we have a meeting?

While it might seem a simple task, they say leave it to the experts.