Without the required organizational change, your analytics project will not fly

Companies are looking to leverage the benefits derived from analytics tools to enhance decisions and performance at all levels of their organisation. However, merely investing in analytics is not sufficient to obtain the desired results.

Merely layering technology on top of existing operations is not sufficient in itself. It can be hard to persuade end users that the solution deployed adds value to their work, rather than adding complexity. This added value may range from something as simple as saving hours of routine work to the generation of strategically valuable insights.

Users need to start demanding data to make decisions rather than relying on their gut feeling or untested assumptions. They should be both excited and aware of the opportunity to save hours of time wasted on slow methods so that they can do more productive tasks. This can happen if they see how the new tools make their day-to-day work more efficient and effective.

“A common issue is that end-users continue to
use the old methods despite the availability of
productivity enhancing tools at their disposal.”

Adoption issues are not uncommon

Organisations build large data warehouses, hire right talent, and deploy advanced analytics only to find that decisions are still made with the help of inefficient (and sometimes even ineffective) old methods. No matter how advanced the technology underlying the analytics program, adoption and change management is necessary”

Common problems with adoption According to a 2017 Forbes Insights-EY report on Analytics:

38%

Lack of support from senior leaders

46%

Lack of collaboration between IT and Users

38%

Inability to change organizational culture

Problem

Lack of support from top management

Insufficient engagement of business users

Inability to Adopt a Data Driven Culture

Questions to be asked

Are top leaders encouraging the use of BI tools?

Is there a mechanism to drive change towards the new system?

Was there top management and business user buy-in before and during the adoption of the solution?

Are business users aware of the benefits of the new tools?

Do they have trust in the information generated from these tools?

Are users receiving the desired information from the tools?

Has the program facilitated a change in the manner of decision-making?

How often are the users leveraging the BI tools to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their work?

Are users comfortable with accessing and navigating through the solution provided to them?”

Things to do

Appoint a change sponsor who owns the transformation process

Regular communication with management on the progress of usage and RoI

Train managers so that they can promote new behaviours in their teams

Engage all users to build trust and acceptance

Enable the IT team to handle queries of business users

Identify the top users and what they are doing as against the low performers

Recognise the users who are doing their best in driving the change

Establish incentives to drive new behaviour

Team Computer drives adoption as an essential component of its analytics implementation. We work closely with our clients to help them realize high returns from their analytics investments. Get in touch by writing to us at analytics@teamcomputers.com to know more.