Organisations of all sizes, and across all sectors, possess a powerful asset that can help them to gain competitive advantage, offer unique insights into their organisational performance, and enable them to ‘level up’ by making smarter and more informed decisions.
Although all organisations have access to this asset, many are not able to fully exploit it and leverage the opportunities that can flow from it.
According to Geoff McGimpsey, Marketing Communications Manager at Belfast-based data analytics specialists, Analytics Engines: “Every organisation produces and holds data. This can include transactional information, logistics records, staff timesheets, machine performance, product warranties, and more. When this data is appropriately captured, transitioned into a digital format, and analysed correctly, the organisation gains tremendous insights into its operations, its customers, and its external environment.”
Data can be a powerful and persuasive tool that can help decision-makers in organisations, as well as informing business strategy and reducing risk. Geoff provides the perfect example of the power of data – a data solution called ‘Precision for Pharmacy’ which is currently deployed for the Western Health and Social Care Trust at Altnagelvin Hospital.
Geoff explained: “We helped the clinical pharmacy team move away from paper-based record systems by co-designing a digital solution that enabled greater transparency and improved reporting methodology. The bottom-line was that the teams felt more empowered and they collaborated more effectively. Managers were also able to evidence the impact of the work they carried out.”
The Challenges of Digital Transformation
Organisational change is inherently difficult to accomplish. However, it remains the only constant in today’s dynamic business environment, and the powerful results of a well-developed and strategic change management plan should not be underestimated.
Analytics Engines has a wealth of hands-on experience in helping organisations develop their digital roadmap. He said: “I’ve found that quite often the biggest challenge businesses face when starting their data journey is properly understanding and correctly mapping out the problem they are seeking to solve. Organisations are aware that they have data, and they understand that it can help but they don’t always understand how. We work closely with businesses to help them understand their problem and to deliver a solution that properly meets their needs.”
For many businesses, there are some hurdles to overcome when implementing a digital transformation strategy, such as getting access to the right data at the right volume, managing it effectively, and getting buy-in from different functions across the organisation.
“Working with an expert partner such as Analytics Engines helps to demystify the process for organisations and gives them the confidence that their digital transformation roadmap is one that will be effective, with useful and positive outcomes that can have a significant impact on the organisation,” he said.
“We collaborate with a wide range of businesses and offer advice on a variety of areas, such as how to best source and present the raw data, how to cleanse it, and how to draw down those all-important insights.”
Increased Potential from Digital Transformation Opportunities
Digital transformation presents exciting opportunities for a range of business functions in organisations of every size and sector.
“Some organisations may feel that digital transformation is for more technically matured businesses only, or that it is only suitable to certain industries and sectors,” said Geoff, adding: “Digital transformation is so much more than an online presence. We guide and assist organisations to realise the value of their data assets and to identify where they could be missing out on real business opportunities.”
Often, it is in an organisation’s best interest to be receptive to new data and information.
“Many can combine their owned data with open datasets which can be incredibly enlightening and identify key trends and indicators that the organisation would otherwise have missed,” said Geoff.
With experts in data science, graph and text analytics, location analytics, data visualisation, artificial intelligence, advanced record linkage, legacy system integration, and custom business processes, Analytics Engines have helped organisations – from very varied backgrounds – to embed digital transformation with great success.
“We recently worked with The National Gallery in London as part of their digital transformation process. We pulled in a range of datasets to create a ‘single source of truth’ reporting methodology,” said Geoff. “The custom dashboard was rapidly adopted across the organisation, putting everyone in every department on the same page in terms of their reporting methods and their understanding of how visitors interacted with their exhibitions. We put the user at the centre of the solution – reducing system complexity and ensuring they could draw the greatest possible insights from their data to optimise organisational performance.”
Experienced in working with healthcare organisations, local and regional government bodies, biomedical science centres, the entertainment and media industries, the hospitality and tourism sector, and education and higher education establishments, there are few industries Analytics Engines have not worked with.
“We have the agility to design business intelligence solutions that provide our partners and clients with comprehensive insight that is capable of enabling change and quickly providing a return on their investment,” said Geoff.
Analytics Engines is also organising a major conference – Big Data Belfast – featuring business use cases and data analytics thought leaders drawn from local domain experts and multi-national organisations. The event takes place at the ICC Belfast on Thursday October 24 2019, and is sponsored this year by EY, as well as Dell, CME Group, Allstate Northern Ireland, SmashFly, SpotX, Altra Executives, Invest Northern Ireland and Signifyd. Find out more about Big Data Belfast and register to attend the conference by going to: https://www.bigdatabelfast.com
To find out more about Analytics Engines and how they can help your business, log on to: https://analyticsengines.com.