The Forrester study, Data and Analytics: The Key to Driving the Business During Challenging Times, also highlights this converged approach as a key indicator of an organisation’s ability to thrive in a strong economy and remain resilient in times of volatility.
The report emphasises the importance and urgency of upskilling workforces to achieve successful digital transformation. Organisations struggle to apply data and analytics to decision making, unless they have self-service solutions that include an option for employees to self-onboard. Specifically, 61% of respondents cite that to improve their data and analytics programmes, both analytics practitioners and business users must have access to self-service solutions. Other key findings include:
· 65% of organisations currently have initiatives to encourage collaboration between data science teams, analytics teams and the business. A converged, integrated data analytics platform is a key enabler to ensuring these initiatives are successful.
· 62% of companies are working to automate business processes by embedding analytic processes into business functions. There is widespread acknowledgement of the need to infuse data into the entire organisational ecosystem and to automate analytic processes by building well-integrated, outcome-first analytics initiatives.
· 45% of organisations already take an outcome-first approach by starting with business users' goals and analysing data to meet the business case priorities. This is largely influenced by an organisation’s ability to work with one data analytics platform versus siloed point solutions.
“There is no doubt the unification of analytics, data science and integrated process automation is critical to delivering business outcomes that are both insightful and actionable. With this unification also comes a heightened need for self-learning and self-service, especially as more workforces look to upskill in remote working environments,” said Sharmila Mulligan, chief strategy and marketing officer of Alteryx. “The Alteryx Analytic Process Automation Platform™ leads the way in converging all critical capabilities into one, unified platform that drives high-impact business outcomes.”