Contact Us

Category: Blog

Categories
Blog Data Maturity Other

From Data Awareness to Data-Driven Excellence: Datatelligent’s Data Maturity Model for Organizational Success

From Data Awareness to Data-Driven Excellence: Datatelligent’s Data Maturity Model for Organizational Success

In today’s data-driven world, organizations need to harness the power of data to gain insights, make informed decisions, and stay competitive. However, not all organizations are at the same level of data maturity. Some may struggle with basic data management, while others may have advanced analytics capabilities but lack a data-driven culture.

This is where Datatelligent comes in. We assist organizations in assessing their data maturity and developing a roadmap for improvement. We have developed a data maturity model with four stages, each with specific characteristics and pain points.

Let’s take a closer look at each data maturity stage and how Datatelligent can help organizations overcome challenges and move towards becoming data-driven.

  1. Data Aware: In the Data Aware stage, organizations have basic data awareness but lack a systematic approach to data management. Data is often ad hoc, siloed, and not used for decision-making purposes.

    Datatelligent can help organizations in this stage by providing data management and organization solutions to create a solid foundation for data-driven decision-making. This may include implementing data governance practices, data quality assessment, and data integration strategies to ensure that data is organized, standardized, and easily accessible for analysis.

  2. Data Proficient: In the Data Proficient stage, organizations have standardized reporting on a reporting platform, but data is primarily used for awareness purposes and not consistently utilized for decision-making.

    Datatelligent can assist organizations in this stage by providing advanced analytics and reporting solutions, empowering them to leverage data for informed decision-making. This may involve implementing advanced analytics techniques such as data visualization, data exploration, and predictive analytics to uncover insights and drive data-informed decision-making.

  3. Data Savvy: In the Data Savvy stage, organizations have started using data to make some business decisions, but data usage is inconsistent and often restricted to certain departments or silos.

    Datatelligent can help organizations in this stage by implementing data governance frameworks, data democratization strategies, and providing training and support to ensure data is used effectively across the organization. This may include developing data governance policies, establishing data sharing protocols, and providing training programs to build data literacy and skills across the organization.

  4. Data Driven: In the Data Driven stage, organizations have embraced data-first thinking, where data is embedded into all business and decision-making processes. All systems and people work together to make the most effective and efficient use of data.

    Datatelligent can partner with organizations in this stage by providing advanced analytics solutions, developing predictive models, and enabling data-driven culture and practices throughout the organization. This may involve fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making through change management and leadership support.

We understand that every organization’s data maturity journey is unique, and our team of experienced data analysts and consultants is dedicated to helping organizations overcome barriers and unlock the full potential of their data. We provide tailored solutions that align with the specific needs and goals of organizations, guiding them towards becoming data-driven organizations.

Contact Datatelligent today to learn more about how we can assist your organization on its data maturity journey.

Categories
Blog Data Maturity Other

Unlocking the Power of Data: How to Become a Data-Driven, Data Mature Organization

Blog on a notepad

Unlocking the Power of Data: How to Become a Data-Driven, Data Mature Organization

Data is the lifeblood of successful organizations, and becoming data-driven is essential for thriving in today’s business landscape! Embracing data as a strategic asset can unlock unprecedented opportunities for growth and innovation. Here are some key steps to becoming a data-driven organization.

Step 1: Define Clear Data Goals
The first step in becoming a data-driven organization is to define clear data goals. What do you want to achieve with data? Identify the key objectives, such as improving decision-making, enhancing customer experience, optimizing operations, or driving revenue growth. By setting specific and measurable data goals, you can align your data initiatives with your organization’s overall strategy and vision.

Step 2: Establish Data Governance
Data governance is the foundation of any successful data-driven organization. It involves creating robust policies and procedures to ensure data quality, integrity, and security. Define roles and responsibilities for data management, access, and usage. Establish data standards and guidelines to ensure consistency and accuracy in data collection, storage, and analysis. Implement data governance practices that align with your organization’s needs, industry regulations, and best practices.

Step 3: Invest in Data Infrastructure
Having the right data infrastructure is crucial for becoming a data-driven organization. Invest in modern data management tools and technologies that enable efficient data collection, storage, analysis, and visualization. Choose solutions that align with your organization’s data goals, scalability requirements, and budget. Consider cloud-based solutions for flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Ensure that your data infrastructure is scalable, secure, and capable of handling large volumes of data to support your organization’s data-driven initiatives.

Step 4: Foster a Data-Driven Culture
Building a data-driven culture is critical for becoming a data-driven organization. It involves creating a mindset where data is valued and data-driven decision-making is ingrained in the organization’s DNA. Provide training and resources to help employees become data-literate and capable of using data for decision-making. Encourage a collaborative approach where employees are encouraged to share data insights, learn from data, and use data to drive innovation and continuous improvement.

Step 5: Enable Data-Driven Decision-Making
Data-driven decision-making is at the heart of a data-driven organization. Use data to drive insights, inform decision-making, and measure performance. Encourage data-driven experimentation, where data insights rather than gut instincts back decisions. Implement data-driven processes and workflows to ensure that data is used consistently across the organization. Foster a culture of curiosity and learning, where employees are encouraged to explore data, ask questions, and make data-driven decisions at all levels of the organization.

Step 6: Learn from Data
Becoming a data-driven organization requires continuous learning and improvement. Leverage data insights to iterate and optimize strategies, processes, and outcomes. Use data to identify patterns, trends, and opportunities for improvement. Implement a feedback loop where data insights are used to refine strategies and drive continuous improvement. Encourage a culture of data-driven innovation, where data is used to identify new business opportunities, optimize operations, and drive growth.

Becoming a data-driven organization is a journey that requires effort, commitment, and a strong leadership vision. By following the key steps outlined in this blog post, organizations can unlock the power of data and leverage it to drive growth, innovation, and success. Here at Datatelligent, we work with customers to help them embrace data as a strategic asset, establish robust data governance, invest in modern data infrastructure, foster a data-driven culture, enable data-driven decision-making, and embrace continuous learning from data. By taking the first step to becoming data mature, your organization can thrive in today’s data-driven world and achieve industry gain.

Categories
Blog Other Solution Engines Solution Previews

4 Key Differences of Datatelligent’s Subscription-based Approach to Data Analytics

Blog

4 Key Differences of Datatelligent's Subscription-based Approach to Data Analytics

Are you looking for a new and different approach to data analytics?

Datatelligent provides a more flexible and cost-effective way for organizations to access the data and insights needed to make better business decisions. Our subscription-based approach to data analytics is different from traditional, one-time purchase software licensing models.

Below are four key differences of our data analytics subscription.

  1. Scalability: Our subscription-based DAaaS services are designed to be easily scalable, allowing organizations to adjust the size and scope of their analytics needs as their business needs change. This can help ensure that organizations have access to the right data and tools at the right time without incurring additional costs for unnecessary capacity.
  2. Updates and Maintenance: Our subscription-based service include regular updates and maintenance, ensuring that the data analytics tools and technologies remain up-to-date and functional. This can help organizations avoid the cost and hassle of maintaining their on-premise infrastructure and ensure they always have access to the latest analytics capabilities.
  3. Access to Expertise: By partnering with Datatelligent, organizations gain access to a team of data analytic experts, and our Data Literacy subscription helps organizations improve their data literacy.
  4. Cost Structure: A subscription-based approach typically involves paying a recurring fee over a set period of time (e.g., monthly, quarterly, or annually) rather than a considerable upfront cost. This can make data analytics more accessible to organizations with limited budgets and allows for better cost management and planning.

Datatelligent’s Subscriptions

For our clients, Datatelligent provides three DAaaS subscriptions (Solutions, Data Operations, and Data Literacy).

  • Solutions Subscription: Analytic Solutions for your entire organization & data solutions to bring together all your sources, including:
    • Analytic Solution Engines
    • Data Solution Engines
    • Unified data platform
    • Data maturity roadmap
  • Data Operations Subscription: Data analytics operations managed all in one place, including:
    • Data capacity services
    • Project flex-up services
  • Data Literacy Subscription: Education and enablement as well as solution adoption to ensure successful knowledge transfer

Our Solutions, Data Operations, and Data Literacy subscriptions are powered by Tableau, Snowflake, Power BI, Cloud Infrastructure, Stitch, FiveTran, and many others.

Contact Datatelligent to learn more about how our unique Data Analytics as a Service subscription service can help you make informed decisions.

Categories
Blog Data Analytics as a Service Other

5 Outcomes of Making Data-Driven Decisions

Blog on a notepad

5 Outcomes of Making Data-Driven Decisions

Organizations can and should make better, more informed decisions grounded in objective information and aligned with their business objectives.

To help remove barriers to making data-driven decisions, below are five key outcomes of accessing your data in new and different ways.

  1. Objectivity: Data provides an objective basis for decision-making, helping to remove bias and subjectivity that can come from personal opinions or intuition. This can lead to more informed and accurate decisions.
  2. Transparency: Data can make decision-making processes more transparent by providing a clear and easily understandable view of the underlying information. This can help build trust and confidence in the decision-making process.
  3. Collaboration: Data can facilitate collaboration and communication among different teams and stakeholders by providing a common language and shared understanding of the underlying information. This can help break down silos and improve decision-making across the organization.
  4. Agility: Data can provide real-time insights that allow organizations to respond quickly to market or environmental changes. This can help improve agility and make organizations more responsive to customer needs.
  5. Efficiency: Data can help organizations identify areas where they can streamline operations and reduce costs by identifying inefficiencies and areas for improvement.

DAaaS can be a cost-effective solution for companies that need more resources to build and maintain their own data analytics infrastructure. It allows businesses to focus on their core competencies while leaving data analytics to the experts.

Contact Datatelligent to learn more about how Data Analytics as a Service can help you make informed decisions.

Categories
Blog Data Analytics as a Service Other Solution Engines Solution Previews

What is Data Analytics as a Service & How is it Different?

What is Data Analytics as a Service & How is it Different?

Datatelligent enables the use of data to make our communities better.

Our subscription-based approach to data analytics, Data Analytics as a Service (DAaaS), is different and can be a game-changer for organizations since it can help remove barriers for your organizations to make better, more informed decisions.

In a nutshell, DAaaS is a service that provides businesses with specialized tools and expertise to help process and analyze data. Instead of investing in costly infrastructure and hiring dedicated data analysts, companies can partner with Datatelligent for their analytic needs. This can include everything from data management and predictive modeling and visualization.

For our clients, Datatelligent provides the following three DAaaS subscriptions:

  • Solutions Subscription: Analytic Solutions for your entire organization & data solutions to bring together all your sources, including:
    • Analytic Solution Engines
    • Data Solution Engines
    • Unified data platform
    • Data maturity roadmap
  • Data Operations Subscription: Data analytics operations managed all in one place, including:
    • Data capacity services
    • Project flex-up services
  • Data Literacy Subscription: Education and enablement as well as solution adoption to ensure successful knowledge transfer

Our Solutions, Data Operations, and Data Literacy subscriptions are powered by Tableau, Snowflake, Power BI, Cloud Infrastructure, Stitch, FiveTran, and many others.

Contact Datatelligent to learn more about Data Analytics as a Service.

Categories
Blog Higher Education Student Retention

How a Customer Service Approach Can Drive Student Success

How a Customer Service Approach Can Drive Student Success

I had the opportunity to attend Educause’s 2022 annual conference, which brought together IT leaders, technology professionals, and campus stakeholders in the higher education community. I was overwhelmed with the amount of excitement, ingenuity, and creativity on hand—whether in the breakout sessions, panel discussions, or hallway conversations and meetings, I came out of the conference energized and ready to tackle 2023.

But what has gotten me so excited? It’s the untapped opportunity we have to harness data to improve student retention, academic success, student financial health, student LMS engagement, and learning outcomes.

And there was one statement that kickstarted this train of thought:

During a panel discussion, one of the speakers stated that early in the semester, a large number of their students had not even been to class. Many hadn’t even been to the cafeteria.

What does this say about student success? Or their journey?

It brought me back to some ideas that have been on my mind. We need to start applying the lessons learned in other industries to our work in higher education.

I spent a big part of my career working with financial institutions. The number one topic is always customer retention: understanding a customer’s journey within the financial institution, working to retain them, and knowing the triggers that might cause them to leave.

The way to help hold on to that customer is by making your relationship more sticky, which can be accomplished by:

  • Establishing a solid relationship with that customer and helping with their financial needs
  • Cross-selling to that customer. The more services you provide, the less likely they are to leave.
  • Understanding not only the individual customer but their whole household

When I think about the word retention in higher education, I see parallels from other industries. And I see opportunities to apply those learnings in new and innovative ways using data.

I see retention as the byproduct of student success. If we better support the student’s journey from the point of enrollment, their persistence/retention is far more likely.

Having a data-first approach is essential to making this a reality. Colleges and universities that have built a solid data analytics foundation are able to better understand the student journey by stitching together data from disparate systems. This unification of data helps identify broad macro trends and also addresses student needs at the individual level. They are able to pinpoint early warning signs and begin intervention efforts to address issues before they are catastrophic.

For example, we at Datatelligent have been working with numerous colleges and universities to develop Student Success & Retention Solutions that integrate data from throughout the institution — academics, housing, student financial health, etc. — and help identify at-risk students. The solution’s dashboards are highly visual and easy to use, allowing advisors and other staff members quick and efficient access to information essential to improving student success.

These analytics dashboards empower staff to intervene at the student level and help them identify broader trends or issues. School administration is now armed with the information they need to make data-driven decisions, can spend less time cobbling together reports, and can allocate their time to improving the student experience at their schools.

Learn more about Datatelligent’s Student Success & Retention offerings and see how our clients are using this custom solution to identify and retain at-risk students. 

 Visit www.datatelligent.ai for more information on our higher education offerings and learn how our clients are becoming data-driven.

Categories
Blog Events & Webinars Higher Education Other

6 Takeaways from the 2022 AIR Forum Conference

Blog

6 Takeaways From The 2022 AIR Forum Conference

A team from Datatelligent ascended on Phoenix for the 2022 AIR Forum Conference, the first in-person event for us since 2019. Bringing together higher education professionals, specifically institution researchers, with data and analytics leaders, AIR Forum was well attended and full of energy. 

The conference also allowed us to reflect on the current and future state of data across the higher education space based on the sessions we attended and the meeting and discussions we had with leaders. With that, here are our top 6 takeaways from 2022 AIR Forum.  

1. It was Great to be Back in Person 

Conference attendees, myself included, were excited to see one other, to share ideas, and to catch up. AIR Forum provided opportunities for networking, brainstorming, and problem-solving.  

The coffee shop in the convention center was a regular hot-bed of connections and conversations, and it served as a good reminder that connecting face-to-face is an unparalleled experience.  Virtual conferences have proven to be extremely effective when it comes to delivering great content, but I think we can all agree that nothing replaces those spontaneous hallway discussions. It sure was  great to be back in person!  

2. Data Literacy & Maturity are Critical 

Data literacy is the ability to explore, understand, communicate and tell stories with data.  

The good news is that from the discussion we had at AIR Forum, higher education institutions truly understand that data is the ultimate differentiator and that data literacy is the key to unlocking the value of your data and technology investments.  

Understanding your institution’s data maturity in terms of your data and analytics vision, as well as your data sources and KPIs, is critical to advancing your maturity.  

We met with several leaders and discussed data maturity. Through this, we learned that there is a wide spectrum across organizations, ranging from data aware to data proficient and then further up the spectrum to data savvy and ultimately data driven. 

3. There’s a Severe Data Staffing Challenge… and Options 

We can all agree that it’s difficult trying to find the right talent for the job, regardless of the job. But when you add in the need for specialized data skills, the challenge becomes even more cumbersome. On top of that, as we potentially head into a global recession, the outlook becomes grim. 

It’s not surprising that we heard from several higher education leaders who said they were actively looking to get creative and “future-proof” their workforce in the face of: 

  • Not being able to hire due to a shortage of data workers  
  • Declining retention due to employee turnover  
  • Economic uncertainty in the face of a possible recession 
  • Inability to keep good talent due to the high demand for highly skilled data workers

One way to circumvent the hiring challenge was to actually not hire directly. Instead of hiring, leading higher education institutions that are looking to reduce risk while also increasing efficiency are turning to Datatelligent’s Data Analytics as Service (DAaaS) model, an alternative option to staffing and building your data team. 

For the cost of just one senior data architect, with our DAaaS model, you can get a whole team to support your data needs—from solutions, strategy, to detailed expertise. We bring use of our leading-edge solutions to help grow your business—all under one unique subscription as a service solution. 

4. Virtualization was Everywhere 

For institutions looking for a new way to combine data from different sources that make it easier to access, understand and share across your organization, conference attendees didn’t have to look far. Virtualization was everywhere. 

There were several sessions about virtualization and how to easily connect to data stored anywhere, in any format. Our technology partner, Tableau, was on hand at AIR Forum sharing how they can help institutions quickly perform ad hoc analyses that reveal hidden opportunities using drag and drop functionality to create interactive dashboards with advanced visual analytics. If you have questions about virtualization, let me know. I can help.  

5. The Future for Data Inclusion & Equity is Now 

For data solutions to be relevant and sustainable, they must be designed in collaboration with the communities they are intended to represent and support.  

We are seeing organizations be intentional about their data. From what we saw at AIR Forum and the meetings that we continue to have, I think that higher education institutions are on the precipice of ensuring data is more inclusive, representative, and effective. In fact, viewing data as a strategic asset and committing to an organizational culture of data inclusion can lead to discussions about policies and how higher education institutions can and should invest in their communities into the future.   

6. Student Recruitment, Retention & Success was a Hot Topic 

Did you attend our session at AIR Forum? Titled “How Tableau Can You Go? Increasing Data Access for Decision-Making,” our own Larry Blackburn, Chief Solutions Officer, was joined by Deborah Phelps, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Cowley College during a session at AIR Forum. They shared how Cowley College has dramatically improved student recruitment and retention by successfully evaluating and reimagining their data analytics infrastructure to become a more data-driven organization. They also reviewed Cowley’s implementation of Tableau, a data visualization application.  

If you missed our session at AIR Forum and would like a copy of the presentation slides, just email me. I’d also be happy to review the presentation with you detailing what we did to improve student success at Cowley College. 

Categories
Blog Higher Education Student 360 Student Retention

The Intersection of DEI, Data & Student Enrollment

The Intersection of DEI, Data & Student Enrollment

All data are not created equal. To be actionable, and to have a chance of influencing behavior, information needs to be legible to the intended audience. 

Many higher institutions have all the right diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) data points at their fingertips, but what they lack is the clarity behind what the data means and the decisions they need to make based on the data. Student information sitting passively in a myriad of databases is a far cry from actionable DEI insights.

Equity can’t be explained away by rhetoric—it’s about the numbers. Whether or not you believe equity is framed and defined by ownership or diversity, it is definitely quantifiable. Therefore, it’s essential to present diversity data in an easy-to-understand, customizable scorecard or dashboard that is relevant to its intended users. The data presentation should allow for easy comparisons between units and across time periods.

Enter Datatelligent. We understand that finding and enrolling the right students is more challenging than ever, which makes each stage of the enrollment journey even more critical. 

DEI DATA SESSIONS

Datatelligent is participating in several upcoming sessions about the intersection of DEI and data, including:

The sessions will review strategies for evaluating the effectiveness of your DEI data across student recruitment and enrollment initiatives. They will also feature a demo of Datatelligent’s DEI Student Outreach Solution Engine that gives higher education leaders a 360⁰ view of the student data, including:

  • Insights into DEI-related recruitment opportunities for high school students
  • Interactive map of counties highlighted by special population indicators and current college attendees
  • Key demographic data (poverty levels, single female households, disability, unemployment rates, etc.)
  • High schools per county displayed with student body demographic details

In order to advance DEI, you must drive progress through your data. Insight into your student data—from its racial and cultural makeup to geographical recruitment reach—is key to understanding your students’ experiences and the change that needs to happen. 

Contact Datatelligent today to start fully tapping your DEI data.

Categories
Blog Data Maturity

Cut Through the Chaos — Build a Custom Nonprofit Health Dashboard with Datatelligent

Blog on a laptop

Working in the nonprofit space can be highly satisfying — you may be focused on addressing a pressing social need, making a positive change in your community, or supporting a mission about which you feel passionate. But the nonprofit world also may mean working with a limited budget, a small staff, and more challenging infrastructure. Throw board and donor outreach in the mix, and the complications can intensify quickly.

What if there was a data-driven, customizable and scalable solution that could seamlessly bring together disparate information in order to gauge organizational health? Imagine having data related to your people, programs, finances, development, and marketing accessible anytime all in one system? Well, that time is now with Datatelligent’s Nonprofit Health Dashboard.

At Datatelligent, a leading data analytics firm, we recognize that nonprofit organizations have specific data challenges and infrastructure needs. Whether it is the ability to gauge your program’s effectiveness year-over-year quickly, identify trends in staff retention, answer board member questions on-the-fly with up-to-date information, or forecast fundraising goals, nonprofit leaders are tasked with juggling multiple demands.

As an executive in the nonprofit space for more than 25 years, I have experienced it all — endlessly pulling reports and Frankensteining the information together from numerous sources, fielding questions from board members and scrambling to find the answers, feeling the frustration of reconciling data anomalies — all while working to support and advance our mission.

All of those experiences have helped me create the Nonprofit Health Dashboard with my colleagues at Datatelligent. This solution enables nonprofits to consolidate information flowing in from throughout the organization, allowing staff to have insight into essential parts of their business: People, Programs, Finances, Development, and Marketing. Each section is organized around Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as dictated by your needs. Our staff at Datatelligent will fine-tune this dashboard to meet the custom needs of your organization. All with the goal of allowing your leadership team and staff  access to the timeliest, data-driven information.

Imagine having all of this at-the-ready: Being able to identify and compare organizational trends, pulling information on-the-fly to address immediate questions from your board or donors, comparing and contrasting program performance to accurately forecast for the future. All of this is possible with our Nonprofit Health Dashboard.

And our team is here to help create your custom dashboard, store the data in the cloud (freeing up your staff’s time and effort), and report the information in a highly visual display, making the data easy to access and act upon.

If you’d like to learn more about how Datatelligent can create a Nonprofit Health Dashboard for your organization or how we have supported other clients, visit datatelligent.ai.

Categories
Blog Data Analytics as a Service Higher Education Tableau

Save Clients Time and Budget with Tableau Prep

Blog on a notepad

From a technical standpoint, data analytics work can be challenging and time consuming. Whether it’s combining different data sources, blending disparate systems, or filling in missing gaps, it can be a migraine-inducing task.

But what if we have been overlooking a tool that can make our job easier and deliver a more stream-line experience for our engineers? At Datatelligent, we have become adept at utilizing Tableau Prep, a Tableau module that can seamlessly clean and combine data from different sources in a highly visual interface. It eliminates the need to write code to connect to data sources and cleanse data. It’s included in the standard Tableau subscription, so it is a budget-friendly option as well.

We have successfully utilized Tableau Prep with numerous Datatelligent clients from the higher education, retail, and the business-to-business sectors. Our knowledge and experience has helped us access our customer’s data in a direct, visual way to ensure a deeper understanding and gives us the ability to act quickly and with confidence. We can deliver our projects quicker and without the usual data management headaches – all with no need to write code, saving countless man hours and improving performance.

Not only is our use of Tableau Prep a huge time and budget saver, but also it allows us to see immediate results. We see the results instantly with each action. This gives us the flexibility to immediately fix errors or try new processes without the need to write new code.

If you’d like to see how Datatelligent supports clients with its Data Analytics as a Service (DAaaS) approach and specifically how we have successfully leveraged Tableau Prep to help clients big and small, visit www.datatelligent.ai.

Datatelligent is a data analytics firm that enables the use of data to make our communities better. Our unique approach, Data Analytics as a Service (DAaaS), helps remove barriers for organizations to make data-driven decisions.

Sign up for our email list for updates, promotions, and more.
Headquarters

535 Duane Street
Glen Ellyn, IL  60137

Schedule meeting Now

Let's Talk

Contact us to schedule a meeting

Latest News
Days
Hours
Minutes