3 Things You Can Do to Start Mastering Analytics

Most companies are “not very far” when it comes to implementing analytics and garnering benefits from data, as a recent survey from CSCMP suggests.

In many cases, organizations haven’t succeeded in making the organizational changes required to become data-driven. Not enough managers are fluent in the language of analytics.

Leveraging analytics at scale is hard. As the graph below shows, lack of talent, investment in hardware/software and siloed data are among the most common challenges.

These obstacles are recognizable in the supply chain context, where talent is increasingly difficult to find and retain, and companies are struggling to transition from their reliance on transactional systems and consulting companies. But mastering analytics can result in significant value creation.

Building advanced analytics into S&OP, for instance, can help you improve the accuracy of the process, increase profitability and enhance customer satisfaction.

Liberty Global, the world’s largest TV and broadband company, integrated advanced analytics into their S&OP to improve inventory rotation times and demand accuracy. The result was a 70% increase in planning accuracy.

PTT, Thailand’s largest oil and gas company, leveraged analytics for network optimization using an AIMMS App. Their resulting cost savings add up to $24 million.

Warehouse optimization is yet another application area where our customers have seen impactful results. Cache Cache, a leading retailer in China, was able to improve productivity by 10% and reduce their picking path lengths by 15% by leveraging AIMMS’ advanced analytics capabilities.

Sounds enticing? Here are three things you need to consider to start your path to analytics prowess.

Recognize that adopting analytics requires a culture change

Don’t underestimate change management. To master analytics, you’ll need a sponsor in your organization, but also the conviction of your team.

The commitment of your team to take charge of your digital strategy and execution is key. An understanding of how analytics will impact each segment of your business is also important, so you can take the necessary measures to ease the transition.

Invest in lean and easy to use software

The days of drawn-out software implementations are over. To master analytics quickly, you need to self-enable your team with lean and easy to use software. Software that can be easily adapted to your changing business reality and brings insights closer to business users.

Look for tools that require minimal data scientist resources, so you can implement and scale without depending on specialists.

More and more organizations are embracing self-service analytics. Gartner predicts that the analytics output of business users with self-service capabilities will surpass that of professional data scientists by 2019.

It’s the perfect time to leverage cloud-based tools that enable you to avoid costly hardware and generally require minimal setup time and maintenance.

Invest in training and skills transfer

Have trouble finding the right talent to kickstart your analytics initiatives? Invest in training for team members that demonstrate an affinity for the field.

Ensure that you have ongoing training and skills transfer opportunities. Work with software vendors that have intuitive software and a robust training program for users in place.

AIMMS has created software to help you meet the demands of today’s demanding pace. We launched SC Navigator last year to help supply chain teams master analytics quickly.

You can format your data and configure your Apps in a matter of hours and without a data science or technical background. You can also use the AIMMS platform to develop custom analytics Apps. We’ve built an extensive training program to help you remain self-sufficient in your use of analytics.

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