Do you want reporting squirrels or analysis ninjas? This question, as ridiculous as it may sound, is at the backbone of the conflict between two essential tasks of working with business intelligence (BI) solutions.
With the right self-service analytics software in place, organisations can shift the focus from collecting data to examining and drawing actionable insight from it - an important transition for seeing the true value of investment in data.
Shifting the data work focus
This is where the terms reporting squirrel and analysis ninja come in. Popularised by Avinash Kaushik - digital marketing evangelist with Google - they vividly illustrate the difference between the two sides of data tasks.
In order to maximise the return on any investment into an analytics strategy, companies must encourage data workers to be ninjas rather than squirrels. It is through an active engagement with business intelligence that organisations see the most impactful results of data.
This is largely a result of how time is divided between these tasks. Kaushik notes that reporting squirrels spend three-quarters of their time merely producing data, while analysis ninjas put that time towards pulling insights from the data instead.
The importance of grooming ninjas
Gathering and analysing information are both crucial steps in deriving actionable insights for optimising business performance, but that does not mean the two are equal in priority, particularly when it comes to how such responsibilities are delegated.
This is an area where organisations are beginning to evolve. In a Forbes Insights survey, over 70 per cent of respondents noted that they are adopting more proactive BI solutions in pursuit of more timely and better-quality analysis of performance data.
Such a move could not happen soon enough. IDC found that the average employee spends over six hours each week on data-gathering, compared to just over four hours on consolidation and analysis. Minimising this time by making it easy for employees to access relevant data in a timely manner must be a priority for firms looking to maximise productivity & reduce unnecessary costs.
How does self-service BI software help?
Because data collection has traditionally been a manual process, even when traditional BI tools are in play, it has been both slow and labour intensive. System and data integration are often cited as the main limitations of current BI systems or processes.
However, sophisticated BI tools like Qlik Sense software have upended this paradigm, providing point-and-click data integration from any and multiple data sources, while business users have the option to create their own powerful dashboards and analysis simply on the fly - or to use guided dashboards created by IT. Each, however, allows for full, drill-down capability from a summarised view of data to transactional level detail, quickly and easily on a consolidated view of data across the enterprise.
The value of self-service analytics over outsourced methods cannot be overstated. Forbes found that close to 90 per cent of industry leaders - more inclined to use this distributed BI framework - report seeing significant business benefits from their BI software. This is in stark contrast to organisations overall, where only 53 per cent have the same positive view.
So to take the step forward towards grooming analysis ninjas within your organisation, download the Forbes Insights Report on Analytical Enablement.
