How To Succeed in Data Democratisation within your Organisation

Industry News

14 Jul

Written By Emily

Succeeding in Data Democratisation – Don’t Stop Me Now

Let's take it truly back to basics - what is Data Democratisation?

The ultimate goal of data democratisation enables everybody in an organisation, irrespective of technical know-how, to work with data confidently. This isn’t just giving people access, but, at its core, providing everyone access to resources to become as data-literate as they wish, demystifying the data. It’s based on a very simple principle, the easier it is for someone to use something, the more likely that they will.

And in an ideal world, this should work perfectly. Why wouldn’t it, it sounds brilliant! However, nothing is ever that simple. McKinsey suggested less than 30% of efforts succeeded, a study by the Everest Group showed 78% of digital transformation efforts failed and a further study said up to 87% of efforts don’t deliver on the original goals.

The reason for this is a lack of buy-in. A lack of resources. Skill gaps. And, unfortunately, some strategies still focused more on tech than on people. So, is it impossible? Well, here follows a handy list of some key lessons learned, based on a case study by UBS.

Lesson #1 – Start me Up

Successful democratisation often starts with solving a small, but common time-consuming problem. This can be things like reporting, transparency, or something as simple as repetitive formatting. This will likely involve working with multiple data sets, as well as manual and repetitive processes, but don’t get disheartened, these are problems any department face.

Lesson #2 – Small Beginnings

One of the biggest issues with democratisation is lack of buy-in, and whilst both alignment and buy-in at all levels is required, the process often starts with just a small team. It works on a basis of proof of concept before expansion can occur. It is here that the true value of data begins to show, and data starts to become as useful as possible.

Lesson #3 – Don’t Stop Believin’

As with any process, there are many barriers along the way to democratisation. Often, access to the tools or data required is still limited, and the growth isn’t supported sufficiently.

It requires proving to an IT department that widespread access to data it beneficial, and users could be trusted with the database. As above, it takes scaling up, starting with a small manual process, and building it from there. Slowly, the culture of the company will shift to support the increase of people wanting to be users.

Lesson #4 – The Long Run

Nothing happens overnight. And once the system is in place, maintaining the system is still an ongoing process. Keeping the excitement about these improvements relies on that culture shift. However, as with UBS, the implementation of this democratisation has caused an increase in productivity and satisfaction, has removed the repetitive processes and the time spent waiting for data and reports.