December 20188 IN MY V EWPOWER TO THE PEOPLE! ALTERING ENTERPRISE ANALYTICS COMPETENCY FOR THE FUTUREBY CELINE SIOW, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, APAC & JAPAN, ALTERYXAs Singapore gears up towards SmartNation, and a digital-first reality, the digital capabilities of the local workforce have become a priority. Beyond educating the next generation in such competencies, employers currently contend with the challenges of the skills gap, especially in the area of data and analytics. These are becoming increasingly key in growth sectors, and even the public sector, with programs like the recent Digital Government Blueprint (DGB) set to fast-track adoption. More than skillsets, businesses are increasingly recognising the importance of deploying the right technologies and platforms to keep them ahead of the curve.Yet, beyond the abstraction of analytics and its promise of business value, how can Singaporean companies solve business challenges by getting to insights faster and addressing issues relating to skills gaps within their organisations? Forward-thinking business leaders across industries are asking these questions right now. Despite these common challenges, the promise of analytics has not been oversold. Companies that get it right build sustained advantages and outpace their competition. So how do they do this? What must happen within an organisation to harness the power of its data?The answer lies in ensuring that the right culture, skillsets and tools are set within the organisation to empower individuals to have access to data and derive meaningful outcomes with it--without this foundation, initiatives flounder and fail to produce results.Freedom for Exploration Companies that want to win using analytics must develop a top-to-bottom, as well as a bottom-up competency--an enterprise ability to perform meaningful data analysis. This involves giving individual business analysts the freedom to utilise all available resources, collaborate with colleagues across different departments, and make better-informed decisions with the faster insights. Developing an analytics Centre of Excellence across the enterprise however is no small undertaking. It requires a great deal of self-awareness--the organisation must step outside itself and evaluate how it goes about achieving its goal on a daily basis, across its various executives and business units. Celine Siow
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