Enterprise Analytics Assessment & Roadmap for a Global Retail Brand
Problem
A large retail brand wanted to understand if they were maximizing their analytical abilities, their level in analytical maturity relative to to other companies, and how they could benefit from applying advanced analytics throughout their enterprise. Additionally, they wanted support in understanding the changes necessary in their existing workforce, governance practices, and data architecture models to inform a roadmap to achieve the next level in analytical maturity.
Approach
Excelerate was engaged to lead the initiative alongside the Vice President of IT and leaders of Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics. By combining existing maturity models with their knowledge of analytical modeling and change management, Excelerate identified the enterprise’s existing analytical maturity and develop a department level change readiness assessment. Through extensive stakeholder interviews, a review of reporting across the company, and deep dive into the data architecture of the organization, Excelerate assessed the types of data each department utilized and the challenges they faced with existing reporting mechanisms. Additionally, an assessment of the organization's capacity to access necessary data and their ability to interpret and analyze it provided an inventory of analytical modeling opportunities to answer each business unit’s most critical business needs.
Results
Excelerate’s approach enabled the retail brand to develop a new organizational structure that would allow analytics to flourish and was ultimately approved by the CEO. The expected labor savings identified through the assessment represented 3% of total workforce costs. The roadmap to analytical maturity allowed the IT department to start the development of new data governance processes that will allow information to remain secure while also accessible to business units. Excelerate’s partnership with their project group further produced a communication plan for the executive board to align the company on their path towards analytical maturity and data-driven decision making.