It’s now clear that embedded analytics is a key enabler for data democratization by driving BI adoption. We wrote earlier about creating a cohesive user experience for an effective embedded BI solution. Now, in this blog, we’d like to discuss a nontechnical aspect that’s vital for a successful embedded implementation—data literacy.
The term “data literacy” denotes the skillset that’s required to understand, interpret, utilize, and communicate data across the organizational hierarchy.
With the variety and diversity in the scope of data usage across different job roles, the approach to data literacy can’t be one-size-fits-all. Hence, at an organizational level, where the adoption of embedded BI comes into the picture, there’s no escaping the challenges of defining, developing, measuring, and refining data literacy.
To build an organization-wide data literacy program, factoring in all the considerations we mentioned above, here’s a suggested framework, made up of the following components:
People
In large-scale organizations, it’s hard to realistically plan and manage a data literacy initiative that caters to each individual. Hence, for practical purposes, employees are grouped under common categories.
For example, there can be two broad groups: Business users who utilize or refer to data for their routine business activities, and core data workers, like data analysts, data scientists, and data engineers, whose bread and butter is data.
A list of basic and essential data skills, identified and defined for each group, can set the foundation for a company-wide data literacy program.
Knowledge
The available scope of information relevant to data literacy is vast, so in an organizational context, it’s imperative to define a standard body of knowledge (BOK) to operate with.
This BOK can include fundamental concepts, technical know-how, procedure and standards education, and every other element that comprehensively addresses your data literacy needs—especially the knowledge requirement of skills defined for each organizational group.
Learning & Assessment
Based on identified skill levels and the body of knowledge for each predefined group, continuous learning can be facilitated for individuals across the organization. The assessment or monitoring of learning progress can be done at both individual and group levels.
Beyond this, employees can be incentivised to complete learning programs offered by industry-accepted third-parties to meet their specific, niche learning needs.
Cultural Orientation
Weaving data literacy into the organization’s culture, as a part of everyday work routines, is a huge step towards successful embedded BI adoption. Though it’s easier said than done, with planning and dedicated effort, it’s incrementally achievable.
These culture-oriented activities can include infusing data literacy standards into governance practices, job descriptions, and strategic measurements. In particular, individual and group literacy assessments can be aggregated into broader organizational metrics, which in turn influence the further progress and refinement of these activities and the overall data literacy program.
Developing data literacy is a continuous, evolving process. It requires a huge investment of time and effort into continuous planning, execution, evaluation, and subsequent iterations, at both individual and organizational levels. Yet the rewards are long-standing and compound over time.
If you’re evaluating the possibility of embedding an analytics solution to boost your organization’s BI adoption, you can consider our embedded business analytics platform. To know more about our offering, you can book for a personalized demo.
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