Data and Analytics

Capturing the value of data and analytics

Data is a key driver of performance in every industry, helping world-class organizations to outperform their peers by a factor of two. Yet many businesses are not effectively leveraging data and analytics to their competitive advantage. Extracting value from information and intelligence requires a new approach that “industrializes” data and analytics capabilities in ways that are end-to-end, repeatable, scalable and integral to core business operations.

The Hackett Group^® can help. As a leading global strategy and operations consulting firm, we provide clients with a formal, structured enterprise roadmap to guide the maturation of their data and analytics capabilities.

The role of quality in data and analytics

When used effectively, data and analytics can be an ongoing competitive advantage for organizations. But to achieve these gains, organizations must ensure the quality and accuracy of their data. To improve the quality of data and analytics, The Hackett Group recommends a five-step process.

Improve accuracy

Organizations must measure current data quality levels and determine how much time, energy and rework is required to make data fully usable.

Benchmark efforts

By setting KPIs for data quality goals across the entire company, organizations can take action to ensure the data collection is complete, consistent, accurate, valid and timely.

Cultivate support

Senior leadership must understand the importance of quality data and analytics and endorse a plan that guides collaboration between various parts of the organization.

Leverage technology

Superior technologies can help identify the root causes of poor data quality. Artificial intelligence and machine learning can help ensure that data is collected and analyzed through accurate, repeatable and scalable processes.

Monitor performance

Improving quality in data and analytics requires continuous monitoring over time, with frequent reports on the positive effects that improved quality has had on the organization.

Extract insight from data and analytics with The Hackett Group

To assist organizations as they implement and improve data and analytics capabilities, The Hackett Group leverages knowledge, insights and best practices drawn from an acclaimed benchmarking and best practices database.

Our consulting services around data and analytics help companies to answer four fundamental considerations:

• Data sources. What sources of data will best answer the most important questions about the business and its functions, processes and projects?
• Information analytics. What techniques, methods and tools will deliver actionable insight?
• Information consumption. What’s the best way to develop channels for distribution and consumption of data to efficiently inform important decision-making processes?
• Data governance. What framework and controls must be put in place to ensure data relevance, quality and timeliness?

The Hackett Group works with companies to implement data and analytics capabilities at several levels.

• Big data. Our services help organizations manage the volume, variety, velocity and veracity of data.
• Advanced analytics. By leveraging predictive, prescriptive and machine learning technologies, we help organizations improve their ability to react and respond to changes in the business climate.
• Data visualization. We help implement technologies that enable leaders throughout the business to quickly understand patterns, spot outliers, recognize threats and identify opportunities.

Building predictive analytics capabilities

Value-based predictive analytics represent an untapped potential for many businesses. When deployed effectively, this technology can deliver a measurable improvement in predictability, profitability and cash-flow generation. However, these advanced analytics capabilities are not yet a mainstream capability among traditional businesses.

The Hackett Group provides consulting services that enable organizations to take predictive analytics capabilities to an enterprise level. We help to:

• Develop a roadmap. From identifying data sources and analytics solutions to determining how analytics output will be used, a roadmap is the best way to define the goals that will guide implementation.
• Assign clear roles and responsibilities. An end-to-end governance framework outlines strategic and tactical goals as they relate to broader business objectives, assigning leaders for each critical activity.
• Close the talent gap. Before launching a predictive analytics initiative, organizations are wise to identify the skills and talents required to manage it as well as the potential sources of required talent.

Why choose The Hackett Group?

Founded in 1997, The Hackett Group is an intellectual property-based strategic consultancy that is publicly traded on the NASDAQ as HCKT. As a leading benchmarking firm to global companies, The Hackett Group enables digital transformation through implementation of leading enterprise cloud services and applications, workflow automation and analytics that enable world-class performance.

Our consulting and advising services are based on insights drawn from nearly 26,000 benchmark studies with the world’s leading businesses, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 89% of the Fortune 100, 70% of the DAX 40 and 55% of the FTSE 100.

In addition to services in a range of areas – including finance transformation, application managed services and continuous improvement – we offer programs that include:

• The Hackett Institute, offering professional development and certification programs.
• Quantum Leap^®, a platform that automates data collection and cuts the effort required for benchmarking in half.
• Hackett-Certified^® Best Practices, a collection of proven, repeatable, documented techniques that deliver measurable business performance management improvements.
• Best Practices Intelligence Center™, the world’s largest searchable online repository of empirically proven business best practices, performance metrics, implementation tools and associated research.
• Digital Transformation Platform, a solution that aligns cloud functionality with best practices and configuration guidance, along with benchmark metrics and best practice process flows that optimize the transformative value of cloud applications.

FAQs

What is the value of data and analytics in business?

Businesses can use data and analytics to gain a competitive advantage by enhancing strategy, streamlining processes, and increasing efficiency throughout the organization.

What is key to using data and analytics for competitive advantage?

Organizations that use data and analytics to enable world-class performance rely on a formal, structured roadmap that guides the development of their capabilities. These businesses engineer data and analytics as an end-to-end capability, automating data collection and consistently applying analytical predictions to ongoing business decisions and tasks.

What is role of benchmarking in data and analytics?

Data and analytics are an essential feature of benchmarking – the practice of measuring an organization’s performance against industry standards and peers. Data and analytics enable businesses to establish baseline metrics and to measure performance improvement against the baseline over time.