To move forward strategically, businesses must capitalize on data analytics to make informed decisions and predict future trends. By converting big data into useful information, analytics helps organizations ensure they stay on track and make adjustments as needed. Uday Hegde, Co-Founder and CEO of USEReadyexemplifies this with his vast experience in the data, cloud and AI domains. In a recent discussion, Uday highlighted the urgent need for BI modernization, the current state of BI adoption in India and the transformative role of AI in defining the future of BI platforms. He highlighted the importance of agile analytics and AI integration for effective decision making.
You have been advocating for the modernization of BI and analytics for a long time. Can you explain why and what is the urgency?
Two main reasons. First, Business Intelligence (BI) platforms have been around for over 40 years, and during that time, hundreds of BI vendors have tried to address reporting and analytics needs. This has created a Swiss cheese effect with massive silos within the enterprise technology landscape. Collectively, the industry spends billions of dollars to maintain, service, and operate these systems. Very often, BI reports are run in batch mode on a periodic basis (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.). It is clear that I see an opportunity to transform this landscape and implement Agile Analytics at the point of decision-making. Second, decision-makers are trained to view analysis and analytics as two separate artifacts. Humans use analytics to justify their analysis. With the advent of AI, analytics and analytics are converging. Which is natural.
Can you tell us about the state of BI adoption and modernization in India compared to more developed markets? Given that the digital transformation story for Indian enterprises is still relatively new, does the BI modernization narrative hold true for them?
India is an interesting market as it caters to both the domestic and global markets through Global Competence Centres (GCCs), system integrators etc. Hence, India has the competence to provide cutting-edge technology. Consumption in the domestic market is broadly divided into two themes: consumer markets and others (corporate, government, industry etc). The consumer market has adopted the most modern technology stack like the western markets in my opinion. Think PayTM, Swiggy, Flipkart, Ola etc. Traditional businesses like manufacturing etc do not invest in modernisation unless compelled by competition. The public sector, however, has been aggressive in modernisation for several years now. Our agencies like ISRO have always had cutting-edge technologies equal to or better than the western countries. This narrative holds true for BI modernisation as well.
While the business case for BI modernization may seem simple, isn’t it true that it can be difficult to get management to accept it given the costs of such projects?
What management looks for in a modernization investment is return on investment (ROI). Modernization investments can be perfectly justified by an accompanying migration and optimization strategy. By effectively retiring and rationalizing legacy platforms, a company can recoup modernization investments. At USEReady, we have codified this into a theme called “MOM” (Migration-Optimization-Modernization). During every MOM engagement, we conduct an upfront assessment and establish an ROI calculator to facilitate management buy-in.
Tell us about some of the other challenges that businesses are currently facing in terms of upgrading BI. Is it mainly legacy BI systems that are not able to handle the data overload?
First of all, BI transformation is more difficult because it affects every aspect of a business: people, processes, and technology. People need help with adoption through training, downtime, learning curve, languages; process and technology transformation further cripples the organization. BI transformations can also exacerbate talent shortages. Second, validation is much more difficult in BI than in other technologies. It requires humans to review and approve the truth and accuracy of data. Third, information access and governance are more complicated due to the different levels of information access rights. Fourth, it requires rigorous change management to deploy and adopt BI transformation.
What are the cultural or organizational challenges that can derail BI modernization efforts?
There are several cultural barriers. First, modern BI platforms are self-service oriented, which means that the people who operate them need to be proficient in these tools. Several departments may need to be reorganized to accommodate this new way of doing things. The willingness to learn and self-service is a major cultural barrier in this scenario. Second, many organizations have tied jobs to BI tools. If jobs are tied to tools, this can be a significant cultural barrier because the people who hold these jobs will resist. Third, centralized versus decentralized decision-making. In an organization with centralized decision-making, decision-makers tend to consume the analytics produced by central decision-making authorities. This can be a barrier if BI modernization attempts to decentralize without a supporting organizational structure.
Many companies struggle with “shadow IT” departments using unauthorized analytics tools. How can modern BI platforms solve this problem and create a more unified data environment?
First, leaders need to identify the reasons why such unauthorized analytics tools exist within their organization. In our experience, we find that unauthorized tools proliferate due to the limitations of enterprise-approved tools. For example: Tableau became popular among data analysts because Microsoft Excel was limited in features and enterprise-approved tools like Cognos, Business Objects were not user-friendly. Any user who wanted self-service BI purchased Tableau Desktop as an unauthorized analytics tool. As a start, we recommend doing thorough research and analysis on the organization’s analytics user community and their needs before diving into approving analytics tools. Modern BI tools aim to stem this proliferation of unauthorized tools by offering agile platforms like cloud environment, user-friendly self-service capabilities, scalable reporting and distribution, the ability to integrate into an external portal, connectivity to a wide variety of data sources including cloud data platforms, unified security with clear data rights, federated data governance with policies and access control.
Skilled data professionals are in high demand globally. How can Indian companies bridge the potential talent gap when undertaking large-scale BI modernization projects?
The good news is that India produces high-quality data professionals in abundance. To tap into this talent, Indian companies need to establish career paths that meet the aspirations of these professionals. By investing in developing early and mid-career professional development programs, Indian companies can create a continuous pipeline of local and mid-level talent. Attrition in a competitive space like modern BI tends to be high. By planning for such attrition levels and investing in growth, Indian companies can capitalize on it. There is a lot of talent in the second and third tier cities of India. Indian companies can tap into this talent to fill their talent gap.
What emerging trends in data analytics do you think will impact the future of BI platforms? How should companies prepare their BI for these future needs?
Artificial Intelligence is the future. The convergence of analysis and analytics is possible with generative AI. Machines can perform mass operations on data such as extraction, preparation, validation, analysis generation, visualization, querying, tuning, indexing and a whole range of operations that are beyond human capabilities. Search and knowledge management in the context of enterprise information are possible with machines. Machine decisions with human validation are the domain of the future. This means that BI is no longer just a conversation about tools, but a conversation about platforms and enterprise programs. Independent BI tool vendors will be part of the story and evolution. Companies must form an internal council to understand the direction, invest for the future and embrace change. All of this will require bandwidth and attention from management.
