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Ready for the storm?
Managing a turbulent economy, geopolitical pressures, intense expectations for social and environmental responsibility, global competition, talent shortages — these are some of the challenges organizations expect in 2023.
And IT leaders are caught in the middle of it, especially now as we enter the era of intelligence.
More companies are prioritizing the democratization of analytics as they recognize the power of data and why speed to insight is critical to success. In fact according to an IDC InfoBrief sponsored by Alteryx, 4 Ways to Unlock Transformative Business Outcomes from Analytic Investments, 73% of organizations report that analytics investments will outpace all other software investments, putting pressure on IT leaders to ensure their investments solve problems and contribute to company profitability.
So, what can they do?
Start or expand investments in cloud analytics to reap the benefits of flexibility and scalability.
Cloud Analytics Deliver Crucial Flexibility to Businesses
Earlier this year, Dimensional Research conducted a global survey of analytics decision-makers at large companies on behalf of Alteryx. Respondents reported many benefits to cloud analytics, including:
- Improved operational efficiency (64%)
- Increased scalability (55%)
- Reduced costs (49%)
Additionally, 81% of organizations expect cloud analytics to have a positive impact on managing economic uncertainty.
And why not? Cloud analytics platforms provide a high degree of flexibility and agility. They allow businesses to quickly experiment with new data sources, analytics tools, and data models without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. This gives leaders more flexibility in managing budgets, hiring people, and tackling business problems without sacrificing performance or results.
The innate support for real-time collaboration and access to critical data and analytics regardless means employees can work remotely, in a hybrid setting, or in-office.
In fact, 98% of respondents said their organization would benefit from more users having access to data analytics tools.
Cloud analytics provides flexibility in other areas of business, including:
- Talent shortages: There are not enough data experts to accommodate the demand for intelligent insights. Cloud-based solutions make it easier to give employees beyond IT access to analytics, empowering those within the lines of business to become more data-driven. And with the cloud, fewer IT resources need to be allocated towards hardware and maintenance. As a bonus, companies that give their workforce the opportunity to gain in-demand analytics skills are better positioned to attract and retain talent.
- Managing a challenging economy: Cloud analytics allows companies to quickly and easily connect to more data sources and perform real-time data analysis, providing insights into customer behavior, market trends, and other key indicators at a pace that can help organizations respond quickly to changing business conditions.
- Customization: With changing geopolitical pressures and a rising emphasis on social and environmental responsibilities, companies can leverage cloud analytics to assess the impact of new policies and initiatives.
This flexibility isn’t cheap talk, either: 89% of respondents agreed that cloud analytics investments contributed to profitability over the last year.
Cloud Analytics Increases Security Through Scalability
Cloud analytics provides more scalability, and not only in areas where organizations usually measure the ROI of scalability, like license fees and resource management. Scalability also encompasses the benefits of governance and security.
Respondents to the survey said that legal and finance functions are “more likely to resist cloud analytics.” Their fears are reasonable, too.
Data breaches, compliance fines, and other cybersecurity concerns are rising. With cloud analytics making data more accessible, they fear that the risk of data falling into the wrong hands increases.
While there’s some truth to that, credentialed cloud analytics vendors with vetted cybersecurity capabilities can decrease the risk of data breaches by protecting sensitive data through encryption, access controls, and data backup and recovery.
They do this with:
- Established, centralized processes that can be vetted and deployed across an organization
- Organizational access controls for data and other analytic assets
- Easy-to-manage and apply firmware and security updates and patches
Reducing risk is always a great reason to support investing in new software, but it’s not an easy sell. After all, how do you show the ROI on an investment that stopped something that technically never happened?
Fortunately, cloud analytics platforms offer near-infinite scalability and can handle massive amounts of data, while scaling up or down per the needs of the business.
The result? Faster time to insight that drives top-line gains from better decision-making and bottom-line returns from efficient resource management — both topics that will make business leaders smile.
Turning Talk into Action
Not all cloud analytics solutions have the bells and whistles to deliver the flexibility and scalability organizations need for volatile markets.
IT professionals leading enterprises and small-to-medium organizations should look for a cloud analytics platform that is:
- Accessible and easy for all employees to use
- Fast and easy to deploy and use with across all systems
- Delivering the information organizations need for all decisions
If they do this, they can ensure any analytics investment they make will lead to profitability — a challenging feat to accomplish in any year, let alone a year showing signs of economic volatility.
As Alteryx’s Chief Information Officer, Trevor Schulze leads the global IT team in delivering a comprehensive, business-led technology services and solutions portfolio. He works to inspire global teams to envision and execute creative solutions to difficult business problems and successfully capitalize on new market opportunities. His focus is on transforming businesses through innovative operational and technology initiatives and bringing award-winning products to market.
Before joining Alteryx, Trevor served as RingCentral’s Chief Information Officer and Global CIO at Micron Technology.
