Analytics Has Become A Necessity For Many Line-Of-Business Users

[BobL]

Over the past week I’ve had the pleasure to speak about customer analytics at two events:

1. Alteryx and AbsolutData co-sponsored webinar:
   The Analytics Highway to Customer Loyalty


2. Marketing Cloud virtual conference session:
   Using Analytics to Drive Customer Insight, Profitability & Loyalty

Now that I’ve had a chance to review the list of attendees at both events, as well as look back at some other events I’ve done recently, one of the things that jumps out at me is the sheer number of line-of-business users from Sales, Marketing, Operations, etc., who want to (and need to) learn as much as they can about how to do their own analytics. There are many reasons why these people have a growing interest in “self-service” analytics:

1. Frustration with long data projects. Within many companies, the data for effective customer analytics is spread across many disparate systems, and the way to unify data typically means a long and complicated IT project, with a detailed scope of work and multiple revisions. The end result of this type of internal process is that it takes a long time to get the insight they need. More often than not, by the time they get the answer to their question, the market has changed and the question, let alone the answer, is no longer relevant.


2. Complexity of using multiple software tools. In response to the limited IT resources available to them and the deadlines that many have to deal with, a lot of users attempt to do their own analytics. There are literally hundreds of specialized tools out there to accomplish specific tasks such as data blending, data cleansing, analytics, and reporting. The problem is that in order to get the answers they need, they literally have to pass data back and forth between all of these tools, making things extremely complex and putting the validity of their analysis at risk.


3. Steep learning curves with traditional analytics tools. Once users decide that they need to invest in real analytics tools, they try to replicate what their IT department uses. What they don’t realize is that traditional analytics tools such as SAS require users to do complex coding, which requires a lot of training, to extract the insight they need. This is why these tools rarely make it out of the IT department where most users have advanced degrees in mathematics or statistics.

Fortunately, the graphical, workflow-based nature of Alteryx is making analytics much more accessible for line-of-business users without sacrificing any of the power of traditional tools. This allows users with the business problems and industry knowledge to focus on getting the insight they need, quickly and without having to rely on others.

Bob Laurent

Director of Industry Marketing