Читать книгу AI-Enabled Analytics for Business - Lawrence S. Maisel - Страница 27

Another myth of analytics is the need to start with a “discovery” project, which retains a consultant to identify opportunities for the application of analytics. A recommended list of about a half-dozen pilot projects is prepared, each of which has a specified objective, budget, resources, and target return. However, it is to be determined whether the analytics can be developed and/or the return achieved, as this will have to wait until the pilot is well underway or completed before the values can be measured. We call this the shot in the dark, as the applicability and/or ROI of any recommended project is ambiguous at its start.

We consider that there is a low to medium risk of no ROI with this approach because there is so much low-hanging fruit for the application of analytics. However, this is an unnecessarily long, complex, and expensive journey, which ultimately increases the risk to achieving a successful implementation.

A side myth to note regards software vendor selection, in that consultants are not the objective arbiters of technology that they often claim to be. They have made significant investments to learn a few software products. This is not a bad practice; it is just that no one should be surprised when a consultant's recommendation of a software vendor happens to be one of their partners.

Note, too, that we are not advocating against consultants. Quite the contrary: consultants are an important part of the landscape for implementing an Analytics Culture. In fact, as we will discuss later, consultants are too often under-utilized for their expertise in business processes that the business critically needs to develop.

Analytics are best implemented by the business, and to avoid the shot in the dark, the business should identify its priorities—for after all, who knows more about the business's needs? From here, the business should select and work directly with the analytics software vendor. These folks know their product and its business applications. They can also bring consultants whom they consider best fitted to the customer. With this method, the business, not the consultant, is in charge—and that will bring focus, speed, cost efficiency, and lower risk to implementing analytics.