Discussion of future trends in business intelligence and analytics abound at Gartner BI conference this week. The traditional goal of achieving a single version of the truth is being challenged by the demands of business users for greater control, access and ultimately self-service BI.
Is the democratization of data and business user empowerment, with the ability to conduct ad hoc analysis leveraging user-driven reports, dashboards, and visualizations, a way to avoid the limitations of a top-down mentality?
Lessons from Blockbuster
Is the top-down approach really an issue? Consider that by 2006 Blockbuster Video had computerized “location analysis” and had subsequently put stores within 10 minutes of 70% of the US population – then Netflix arrived. New real-time content delivery expectations and a flat monthly subscription fee disrupted the existing business model and its cost per video structure.
Did it have to? Didn’t anyone see it coming? Certainly the arrival of streaming diminished the benefit of being able to go and get a video rather than wait for it in mail.
But if more business users were empowered through effective self-service BI to capture access and analyze data, what could they have done to counteract top-down thinking?
Consider a store manager with an understanding of the local market and particularly the local customer having the ability to analyze and respond to changing needs. The store manager could analyze, test, measure and respond. Inventory could be adjusted, with high demand items put on order and those with little demand stricken from orders. Unfortunately the reality was different as one commentator in a Variety article noted:
“It makes no sense that that the Blockbuster on 85th and Lex was the same as a Blockbuster in Nebraska,” says Peter Feingold, co-owner of Video Room, which has two locations in Manhattan that focus on foreign fare and kids’ films, in a Variety article. A Manhattanite “doesn’t need a store with 90 copies of ‘Rambo 8.’”
A chain such as Blockbuster could even have moved specific titles from a store whose customers had no interest in them to where they were wanted, to cut costs and please their customers at the other store.
Beyond providing store managers with the ability to measure and respond to local tastes using reports and dashboards – an ideal decentralized approach would have included an embedded reporting and dashboard feature that allowed rank and file employees the ability to see what movies are popular with customers and make suggestions to store patrons.
The front-line reps have the context and relationships and can drive the application of data to personalize the experience. Had Blockbusters empowered workers by democratizing access to data in their applications, they could possibly have prevented their meltdown.
Izenda’s embedded solution assures stronger user adoption and satisfaction because users don’t have to learn a new interface. Users are free to explore reports, dashboards and visualizations in real-time within the applications they use every day. Instead of introducing yet another security endpoint for IT to administer, Izenda dynamically inherits the rules, practices and policies of your application.
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