Alteryx reveals insights from Forrester study, “Data and Analytics”

Alteryx, Inc. revealed insights from a newly commissioned Forrester study, which underscores the convergence of analytics, data science and process automation as critical to enabling substantial business benefits. The Forrester study, Data and Analytics: The Key to Driving the Business During Challenging Times, also highlights this converged approach as a key indicator of an organization’s ability to thrive in a strong economy and remain resilient in times of volatility.

As governments and businesses across the Middle East remain focused on accelerating transformational outcomes through data analytics and automation, initiatives such as the UAE’s Smart Data Strategy and Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the Global AI Summit illustrate a clear commitment to unlocking the potential of data to drive economic growth.

Regionally, industries such as financial services, insurance and investment, healthcare, oil and gas and retail are accelerating digital transformation projects, prioritizing investments in innovation accelerators such as advanced analytics and the hyper-automation of data-driven processes to define memorable experiences and ensure the satisfaction of customers.

The report emphasizes the importance and urgency of upskilling workforces to achieve successful digital transformation. Organizations struggle to apply data and analytics to decision making, unless they have self-service solutions that include an option for employees to self-onboard. Specifically, 61% of respondents cite that to improve their data and analytics programs, both analytics practitioners and business users must have access to self-service solutions. Other key findings include:

• 65% of organizations currently have initiatives to encourage collaboration between data science teams, analytics teams and the business. A converged, integrated data analytics platform is a key enabler to ensuring these initiatives are successful.
• 62% of companies are working to automate business processes by embedding analytic processes into business functions. There is widespread acknowledgement of the need to infuse data into the entire organizational ecosystem and to automate analytic processes by building well-integrated, outcome-first analytics initiatives.
• 45% of organizations already take an outcome-first approach by starting with business users’ goals and analyzing data to meet the business case priorities. This is largely influenced by an organization’s ability to work with one data analytics platform versus siloed point solutions.

“Recent times may have caused organizations to scale back on specific areas of investment, as our study has illustrated, but decisionmakers in the Middle East have been quick to recognize that the data-driven insights are integral to aiding growth – enabling many to weather recent storms,” said Abboud Ghanem, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Alteryx. “Even industries that are largely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including travel and hospitality, are seeing an increased need for embedding data and analytics throughout their organizations. Now is the time for all organizations to double down on a converged approach to data democratization, automation of business processes and the upskilling of workforces, which will improve their ability to solve complex data science challenges, make informed decisions and plan for the future.”

The “Data and Analytics: The Key to Driving the Business During Challenging Times” report is based on a comprehensive survey of 250 organizations and analytics decision makers in those organizations across North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe. The full Forrester Opportunity Snapshot can be viewed and downloaded here.