Several companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in platforms in their analytics program (human resources and software dedicated to the exploitation and use of data) without necessarily obtaining a return on their investment (ROI). This perception of non-profitability associates analytics projects with expenses rather than investments, making it difficult to finance related initiatives (acquisition of a new analytics platform, purchase of new data sources, hiring of new analysts , allocation of hours for monitoring and optimization projects, etc.). By developing a strategic plan for analytics, you ensure a significant impact of these initiatives for your business.
Understanding your business and its environment is essential to developing a successful strategic plan. Some components must be studied:
Keep in mind that some of these components can themselves be the subject of a strategic plan for analytics or a data strategy. The field of analytics concerns several fields of expertise: consumer data analysis, product analysis, marketing data analysis, business analysis, people analysis and competitive intelligence. In short, analytics is a science that can be applied to all fields where data is available.
A realistic plan cannot be developed without clear objectives and an honest evaluation of the program currently in place. To do so, it would be important to answer the following questions:
To develop a plan, the gap analysis will allow you to compare where you are now (current state) and where you want to go (future state), and thus discover the missing components to get there. A simple example would be:
Once you have identified the different components that will allow you to reach your future state (ie the result of your gap analysis), it will be important to design a plan with the steps to achieve your goals. At this point, your priorities should be set based on the value that could be generated for your business. A roadmap should be developed to establish the chronological order of the different phases of your plan. The budget for each phase should be considered. Depending on the scope, the plan may include several components: data, platforms, processes, culture, and skills/team.
The strategic plan for analytics requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders in the organization (IT, product, marketing, finance, senior management, etc.), and their agreement on a common vision is of importance. critical for the adoption of your plan. To navigate the complexity of this process and perform an objective assessment of their analytics program, many organizations rely on external consultants. Adviso can become your partner to fully deploy your analytics program.