How to Implement a Data Self-Service Program

Data self-service is a hot topic these days. By giving different people across an organization–marketers, technologists, business leaders, etc.–access to available data and analytics tools, you empower business users and decision-makers to do their jobs effectively. But data self-service is still a work in progress at most organizations.

According to a recent survey by IDG Research, more than half of the respondents’ lines of business rely on IT or data teams to build and set up BI and analytics dashboards, versus handling these tasks themselves. The point being, at most companies, employees do not have direct access to data or to the tools that help them analyze their data. For many businesses, data self-service is the next milestone in achieving rapid time-to-insight and real-time business agility.

Whether giving increased data access to new users or helping traditional data users achieve more advanced analytics tasks, the goal is the same: more people with the ability to quickly get the information they need, without submitting a ticket or waiting in a backlog. However, moving to a more democratized data and analytics system takes strategy and planning.

Here are six steps that can help you organize your data self-service initiatives.