People in various departments can’t get reports that they need.

As a CEO, you understand the innovation that data and analytics can unleash within your company. You know of course that companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook leverage their information to beat the competition – but more importantly, there are a multitude of smaller to mid-size companies also using Big Data to create opportunities to stay ahead of the competition.

However, you have a problem. Your leadership is not getting the information and insights they need to help them stay aggressively positioned. Without insights on operations and customers, your company can not begin to utilize the power of data and could fall behind competitors in your industry.

To solve this problem, it is important to first understand the causes of your information bottleneck. After you understand the cause, then you can begin to get your leaders the information and insights they need.

What Causes Information Bottlenecks

Like most companies today, your company collects tons of input. You know your company is data-driven enough to emphasize and collect the information.

Last year, the Harvard Business Review published a NewVantage Partners survey highlighting why companies fail to leverage the information they collect. According to the survey, nearly 100% of C-suite executives who took part claimed that people and processes created data bottlenecks rather than technology itself.

To bolster this claim, Forbes described how data scientists were spending only 20% of their time on work they were hired to do. The majority of their time, 80% of it, was spent cleansing and organizing data. Cleaning up unorganized information was an extreme time-commitment for these analysts. The more time they spent prepping data, the bigger the bottlenecks become, and the further they slipped behind.

Often not having the right tools can contribute to logjams in providing reports. A survey conducted by Forbes Insights/Dun & Bradstreet discovered that almost 30% of participating companies are still using rudimentary tools such as spreadsheets to perform data work.

What Your Competitors are Doing

With tons of information available, it may seem daunting to you to come up with a solution to your information problem. Many big data pioneering companies started with a precise data-driven strategy. This clear-sighted plan and clean slate to start from allows them to avoid analytics logjams and leverage analytics to innovate and enhance their competitive advantage.

The important element these pioneering companies have is quality data engineers and data scientists. With quality professionals, these companies can fix problems on the spot. However, many other companies flounder to locate the right employees to transform their gathered information into a competitive advantage.

An absence of clarity about the needed skill sets, or the inability to stretch your budget to add required for additional full-time staff, further slows down innovation and hinders your analytics road map.

Ways to Scale Your Team to Reduce Insight Problems and Give Your Company a Competitive Advantage

Having access to quality data professionals allows you to more easily produce the insights you needs to drive innovation and build a competitive edge. Many businesses today benefit from a plan that includes freelance talent as a service. Some firms invest in additional team members for permanent projects, based on essential needs. Both scenarios require the right people and technologies to harness data in order to innovate and stay ahead of the competition.

“On-demand” analytics is a new approach that gives your company flexibility. An on-demand analytics professional can get the job done when needed. Essentially it is “as-needed” hiring, whether that’s for industry-specific expertise, technology or process skills, or augmenting your team for a particular time of year or project.

An on-demand analytics workforce can help your company break down information bottlenecks and drive a competitive edge by:

• Working within your existing budget.
• Finding creative staffing solutions in a tight labor market.
• Supporting speed-to-market with experienced data professionals with the precise skills and expertise you require.

If you chose this approach, be sure to cautiously vet the candidate’s qualifications and true ability. Ensure these specialists possess superior skills and experience so they can create value fast, and not spend a lot of time learning or ramping up.

These types of hires are beneficial when doing research for a new product launch, assessing a quarterly project, changing technologies, in combination with a merger/ acquisition (pre- and post-) and similar situations where you have a start and endpoint.

Chisel Analytics helps you employ the right talent needed to break data bottlenecks. That means all your departments get the insights and reporting that they need. In turn, your company enhances its innovation. Ultimately, you compete well and grow your company.