It is said that leadership is like moving ahead with a ‘compass’ and a ‘clock’ – the compass tells if the direction is right and the clock tells how much time it will take to reach the destination.
The veracity of the above statement can be observed in the case of companies that recognize analytics as an integral constituent of their leadership ambition. For such companies, the ‘destination’ is ‘to become data-driven’; and to reach this destination, ‘strategy’ is the compass and ‘roadmap’ is the clock.
Having understood that analytics strategy and roadmap are important navigational tools for companies to achieve analytics leadership, let us understand what analytics strategy and roadmap are.
Analytics strategy is a company’s intent that specifies the people, process, and technology aspects that it should put in place to ensure that the right insights reach the right people at the right time to make the right decisions. An analytics roadmap is the translation of an analytics strategy’s intent into a plan of action that identifies the various initiatives that a company needs to undertake, evaluate the potential of each initiative, and outlines how and when they should be undertaken.
It is important for companies to embark on the ‘Analytics Strategy and Roadmap’ exercise as it will enable them to channelize the power of analytics towards the achievement of their business goals. This is so because such an exercise provides a definitive goal and direction to a company’s efforts and investments in analytics. Its absence leads to a state best described by the famous quote from Lewis Carroll “If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there.”
Further, it is imperative that the ‘analytics strategy and roadmap’ exercise is kept focused on the necessary elements only so that the exercise is conducted economically, in quick time, and justifies the cost-benefit equation.
Depicted below is the structured four-phase methodology that DiLytics follows in carrying out ‘Analytics Strategy and Roadmap’ exercise for customers:
DiLytics is of the firm conviction that the ‘Analytics Strategy and Roadmap’ exercise should be carried out in a structured and focused manner so that pertinent recommendations are arrived at and shared with customers quickly (in DiLytics experience, this exercise has been conducted in a matter of a few weeks). DiLytics methodology has been found to be a key enabler in ensuring this. The different phases in DiLytics methodology are described in more detail below:
Key activities carried out in this phase are:
Key activities carried out in this phase are:
Key activities carried out in this phase are:
Key activities carried out in this phase are:
‘Analytics Strategy and Roadmap’ exercise is the foundation that every company should lay for guiding its various analytics initiatives towards successful completion. When viewed objectively, it is a small investment both in terms of money as well as time, which pays off manifold by streamlining the execution path of other larger-dollar-value analytics programs in a company.
DiLytics has extensive experience in helping companies determine the strategic direction for their analytics initiatives. For any queries related to this topic, please reach out to us at [email protected].
DiLytics helps organizations modernize analytics, improve decision-making, and turn complex data into a competitive advantage.