“Trust in God, for everything else refer DATA” - W. Edwards Deming
The need for data cannot
be more exaggerated, be it running a country, or managing a Corporation or even
simply running a family. Statistics and Numbers are all around us,… and there
are enough expert materials to provide readers clarity on methodologies and
best practices of analysis and prediction of data. What this post concerns, is
a little sneak into where lies the crème, In Data Gathering or Data Collection
or in applying framework of Analytics to
already collected or gathered and then organized Data.
In a country like India,
we have diverse methods to madness,…. . Government Houses have full-fledged
citizen services in place both for state and national, but recording of details
or clean data is limited only to few “Highly” critical or principal component like "Finance and Accounts" …. I’m
not just talking about the way governments run, but also the way Corporations
and MNC Service Industries, operate. Indian IT/ITES Service sectors, is where
my experience lies and it would be right if I comment that these firms, tough
huge and multi-billion dollars of net worth, have failed to build In-house
Systems or Process that can support effective Analytics. The Indian
IT Service Firms which “constantly Innovate” (So they’d like to be called), for their Clients, do not invest as much internally on their own In-house Corporate Functions. Decision makers from High-level to Mid-level
Managers, use “Excel” Sheets both to collect and analyze data and this has a cascading effect both on the quality of process operations and system effectiveness. How effectively
can a Billion Dollar Company Collect data from its 30- 50 Vertical and
Horizontal Operations, Save the Corporate Functions, through just Excel sheets or with elementary systems capacitated with basic structured queries,
for collecting information????
The side of the coin is IT/ITES Firms that uses BI Systems
and tools for Analytics, to perform statistical procedures on a data that is flawed. I find Data Gathering or
Data Collection to be very challenging in both Corporate Functions and in
Govt. run Services. Companies proudly flaunt about jazzy words of statistics and Analytics, but on a data that is completely unstructured, erroneous and incomplete. Well there is always
trace of larger details, like Finance, current/history of new hires, attrition,
On-rolls, salary, Vendor pay-out/management, Cost/profit analysis…. How on earth can data effectively milked, if base collation from various processes is not accurate…Lot of
companies also boast of going fully automated, with ERP/CRM/,… but on the floor, in
everyday operational level, I find it quite surprising, how Executives to Managers of PMO Team play around with Excel Sheets. MS Excel is a great tool for simple Analytics,
but never for recording and collecting data or process details whirling around transactions of over Lakhs,….
Another
prank, which High-level C-executives give into is the “Six Sigma” Actors,… With
a Black or Green Belt to their hat of fame, I’ve witnessed, how Indian IT
Majors, linger and hope on promise of automation, normalization of process and
other sugar coated words of Six Sigma Revolutionists,…. The folks usually join
as Managers and enable the ops. to build "elementary" web based Applications, that can collect data
in way of forms, and execute 10-20 base structured queries, which can operate of
data collected partially through forms and give trend analysis. Irony, as it
may sound, these six sigma folks, have just knowledge of Six Sigma, and
generalize it’s methods to almost all operations,…. A Dubba Wala’s method to
NASA’S Operations is their claim to Generalization…. While I do not fully
disagree, in my perspective, Data, Process and Systems across operations cannot
be Entirely Generalized. The nuances differ with each trade, and six sigma is
only limited to “Quality of Operations” and never actual “Process Reforms or
Process Standardization or Even Process Enhancements (Yes, Lean!!). For
effective tweaking of Processes one needs Functional Knowledge unique to the
Process that is to be tweaked and Domain expertise. Not just Articulation
skills, of Yield Though Output, Outliers, Lean Methodology or sigma Ratings.
Data Collected in a
Country like India (IT Services Sectors – Operational/ Mid-level Data “manually”
collected), is wealth which is quite sensitive to be shared,…. The Individual, who “manually” labors to
collect the data, has to be credited more. First, he found some trace of records
to never before existed process (Remember, Processes that run manually on
Ground, is what we are dealing with here). Second, When the data is collected
and organized meaningfully, applying analytics is just a Child’s play.
Statistics Experts have already given us the method and way of Trend-pattern
based analysis, Estimation or predictive analysis, Co-relation or regression,
Chi-sqaure, Optimization, is not rocket science but common sense, when applied
to organized data gives great insight and intelligence. So, in my perspective, in a realm where there
is no data or record of any processes, that Data Collection is of prime
importance than Business Analytics,…. Analytics can anyways be Automated by MS Access
or BI Tools,… But Data Collected and Organized Meaningfully, when there is not
systems in place to do so, is exceedingly challenging. Sharing Data “MANUALLY”
Collated with a, a colleague or cross-functional superior, is like opening up
you assets for plunder,…. High-level
executives, are little bothered of Data Collection and only concerned with
Intelligence that data Bring (And they have the right to do so) and letting folks
milk on your manually collated Data, may always keep you backstage,…. Hence, be shrewd if you are into Handling
Data.
To live upto to “State of Art Business House” is not just the larger numbers of Financial Statements, but Wholesome Data for systems to integrate all processes, so that the finer, granular details are also captured. Employees are just but users who execute the processes defined on ERP/CRM Systems..
I don’t know how to
complete, and where to end!!!! But here’s
my say,…. Data Analytics is world in itself. It’s methods and trade cannot be
limited to text books,… Only Passion, Experience and Intuition can carve an Individual
with Aptitude for Data and Analytics. It
does not take Seventh Sense to be a Business Analyst or efficient Manager. All
it requires is but Conscious understanding of current-state and GAP and Vision
for Futuristic Ideal Operations/Goals. And end-to-end Understanding of Data,
that can help you analyze the GAP and suggest best practices when effectively implemented
can take you to next level.
