EDITOR’ S QUESTION existing manufacturing facilities. The purchasing team, separately, approaches the data science team to reduce the cost of each part. To do this, they want to identify where they have multiple suppliers and move to a model with a single global supplier that offers larger volumes and reduces costs. These competing philosophies will each optimise a piece of the business, but in reality, the outcome should be a single optimised approach for the business.
Instead of developing competing solutions, a centralised data science team can balance competing objectives and deliver an optimal solution that’ s aligned with overall strategy.
• Applying analytics across domains
The best breakthroughs in analytics come not from new algorithms, but from applying existing methods to innovate use cases across domains. A centralised data science team, with its broad view of the organisation’ s challenges, is more likely to spot these opportunities and adapt solutions from one domain to another. For example, an algorithm that proves successful in optimising marketing campaigns could be adapted to improve inventory management or streamline production processes elsewhere in the business.
• Champions for analytics maturity
Finally, a centralised data science function is best positioned to drive the overall analytic maturity of the organisation. This function can standardise governance, best practices and drive the change management processes, ensuring that data-driven decision-making becomes core to company culture.
Getting on the right side of change
The shift from classic BI to a centralised data science function is not just a structural change; it is a crucial strategy for companies looking to stay ahead of competition that’ s increasingly data-driven.
By centralising data science and enforcing a charter for BI to independently solve key problems of the organisation, companies can tackle complex, crossfunctional problems more effectively, foster talent development, create inter-departmental synergies and drive a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. This evolution sets world-class companies apart from the rest and there’ s no reason your company can’ t unlock the same opportunities. p
www. intelligentcio. com INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA 35