By: Murali Nair, Vice President - Digital Solutions, LTI Canada

To develop an effective Data and Analytics Strategy, it needs to be based on assessment of business and technology needs, alignment with the enterprise strategy and business priorities. Performing a gap analysis is necessary to establish understanding of what you have currently (as-is state) and what you want to achieve in your desired end-state (to-be state). Listed below are some questions to help you perform soft assessment of customers journey towards Data and Analytics Led Transformation.

Data Initiative
– How critical is data and analytics in meeting your business goals?
– What is the business need that you are trying to address? What data you’ll need?
– Do you have the required data within the organization to achieve the desired outcome?
– Do you have access to data when you need it and flexibility to choose how you need it?
– Do employees in your organization trust in the data that you require for this initiative?
– Do you have roles defined clearly with accountability and ownership on individuals or teams responsible for “data” within your organization?
– Do you maintain a data dictionary for business users – internal or external business users to easily interpret data elements?

Analytics Initiative
– Do you have a consolidated view from Multiple data sources (mobile data, web sites, CRM, Call Center, Point of Sale)?
– Does your organization leverage the potential of analytics – predictive and prescriptive?
– Does your organization have skills required to utilize efficiently the analytics platforms?
– Is the role of analytics clearly understood and defined within your organization?
– Is the current analytics platform easy to use?
– How is analytics aligned to enable business growth and deliver value?
– How do you measure effectiveness of improvements implemented within your business today and what value analytics could potentially offer?
– Does your organization use analytics today to gain better understanding on following?

• Customers
• SWOT analysis – Products and Services
• Competition
• IT Expenses
• Sales & Marketing

Given the complexity due to the rapidly changing Technology Landscape and competing business priorities, organizations seek expertise from external consultants to get the right start. LTI can be your partner to provide objective assessment of your current state and provide recommendations and further assist in formulating a Technology Roadmap for Digital Transformation.