Analytics adoption has become a key requirement for most companies as it helps in speeding up the data understanding and generating useful insights. However, not all analytics adoption strategies turn out to give the same amount of success. There are certain instances where despite all the efforts, the analytics program fails to deliver the expected results. In this article, we will discuss a few such instances where companies can identify when these programs will succeed and when will it turn out to be a complete failure so as to take precautionary measures.
No clear vision for advanced-analytics programs
This stands to be one of the major reasons why your analytics program might ever fail. It may stem out when there is an unclear plan and a lack of solid understanding of the differences between traditional analytics such as BI and advanced analytics such as machine learning. Any confusion and no clear vision for advanced analytics may end up in a series of disasters such as recruiting the wrong team, using the wrong tools and ultimately not getting the expecting results. It would also mean failure of identifying the right problem statement.
The team selects wrong use cases
Either the team selects the wrong use cases or they do not have the expertise to generate value with analytics beyond specific situations and use cases. The team may fail to recognise the use cases for which analytics is actually required and expect drastic transforming results. It is always advisable to pick 4-5 use cases that are expected to generate quick value and identify the right ones to make the right analytics investments.
Lack of talent and analytics roles are poorly defined
The success of analytics adoption may have a clear impact based on the skills and talent that are recruited for the job. Many companies may ignore the fact of how their analytics team is structured, how it is organised and whether they have the right skills and titles. The new hires may not be exposed to the hands-on use of analytics tools and may not deliver what is expected of them. To have the right data scientists and clearly defined roles is extremely crucial for the analytics program to succeed. Any organisation needs a blend of business, technological and analytical skillsets. Lack of any of one of these may cause a distraction in the end goal.
No clear goals
More often than not, it is not clear what is the value a company is looking out from the analytics program. It can be a huge problem when companies do not have specific goals for their analytics and what questions to ask. The purpose of analytics is to understand and optimise marketing efforts and clearly defined goals of every analytics program.
No tracking of the quantitative impact of the analytics program
While millions are spent by companies on implementing advanced analytics and other digital investments, companies are often unable to attribute any bottom-line impact to these investments. Advanced analytics is expected to capture every single possible data point to get a better understanding of the case in point. But there are cases when analytical campaigns fail to convert new users. If there is a failure in acquiring new users or getting any possible insight from the data that you already have, it can be a waste of time and resources to chase fancy data and deeper insights. It is important to stay focused on the most significant business metrics before heading to another.
Overlooking ethical, social and regulatory implications of analytics
While dealing with large volumes of data, there are possible chances where data can get compromised or there are ethical issues that are not dealt with properly. If data is exposed to risks such as algorithmic bias, where an algorithm shows bias in terms of ethnicity, region, and gender, it may be called a failure of analytics program. It is therefore important to have significant supervision and risk management to get the algorithms to behave in an ethical way.
Not asking the right questions
Most of the times, the focus of business units is to create beautiful reports without understanding the need for creating the reports. The kind of questions that should be asked to create business value is often left out. There is no clarity on why those reports should exist and what kind of questions can add value to a business. Asking the right questions at the right time helps in avoiding an analytics program to go wrong.
