Time to redefine the concept of the Centre of Excellence

WE'RE all familiar with the term "digital divide" - the gap between those who have digital access and literacy, and those who do not. Added to the longstanding "digital divide", organisations are facing another fast-emerging disparity - "analytic divide". This refers to the difference between organisations that can quickly leverage data-driven insights and automate processes in response to major global disruptions, and those that cannot. In overcoming this new-age divide, can redefining the in-house Centre of Excellence (COE) help organisations bridge the gap and drive analytics breakthrough?

Difficulties in bridging the gap

Data analytics and data science are undoubtedly the leading forces of today's digital age, and this phenomenon is only expected to surge. According to the World Economic Forum Jobs of Tomorrow Report 2021, the demand for data scientists is seeing a high annual growth rate of more than 40 per cent globally. Mirroring the global demands, Asia-Pacific's need for advanced cloud computing and data skills is projected to treble in the next 4 years, with an increase of more than five-fold of workers applying digital skills. In absolute numerical terms, the number of such "digital skills" workers is expected to reach 819 million in 2025, compared to 149 million today.

With the digital economies rapidly accelerating, the world's workforce must adapt in tandem. However, this brings a multitude of questions: Can COEs keep up with the demand? Is there a most effective way of closing the analytics divide? How can the workforce be as data-literate as their data analyst and scientist colleagues?

While almost all business leaders report that employees are expected to acquire new skills on the job, nearly 9 in 10 organisations report that they are either facing the skills gaps now or expect the gaps to develop within the next 5 years. Closer to home, a staggering 94 per cent of Singapore enterprises cited a lack of data literacy skills as hampering business productivity.

Centre of Excellence - redefined

The COE exists to concentrate existing expertise and resources to attain and sustain world-class performance and value, as defined by Gartner in 2016. Fundamentally, COEs promote operational efficiency by building a community driven by collaboration and communication, while providing training, skill sets and best practices to drive organisational excellence. However, with a lack of specialised skill sets to drive data-driven outcomes, COEs are unable to effectively poise organisations to innovate faster and thrive in a digital economy.

A people-centric approach has always been, and always will be, the key to a successful COE. Staying true to its core, analytics investments should no longer reside with a select few experts that create siloed capabilities. Instead, analytics investments ought to empower every employee to be citizen data scientists as an army of knowledge workers armed with analytics automation will have a bigger impact than if left in the hands of a few data scientists.

In creating citizen data scientists, organisations can architect and deploy a next-generation self-service analytics platform to upskill the current workforce and share data-driven outcomes at scale. In fact, 8 in 10 organisations look to data and business intelligence tools to survive the pandemic economy downturn. Additionally, an Alteryx-commissioned IDC research study uncovered that leaders believe that democratising data skills with a self-service analytic tool provides their organisations the agility and scalability to deliver insights-driven decision making.

Road ahead for COEs

A modernised COE is particularly important to Singapore organisations, where human capital is expensive, and companies require economies of scale and market growth to thrive. Organisations that integrate data analytics across various roles and functions are more likely to outperform their peers in key business priorities. This includes cost reduction, business model innovation and market expansion.

Both technical and non-technical employee roles, when empowered with knowledge and skill sets to operate analytical tools and drive data-driven outcomes, would stay relevant in the workforce over time. Tasks surrounding analytics expertise will no longer be a major obstacle in workflows. As the modernised COE narrows the analytics divide, a wider talent pool can benefit from their newfound data literacy and organisations are strengthened to drive insights-driven innovation and outcomes at scale.

It's time to redefine the concept of the Centre of Excellence where analytics capabilities are not confined to data specialists, but actively embedded across various roles and functions. With analytics automation tools, organisations can redefine the future of COEs and drive analytics breakthrough at scale.

The writer is senior vice-president, sales, at Alteryx