Self-Service Data Analytics and Governance for Managers

CHAPTER 2Emerging AI and Data Analytics Tooling and Disciplines

Companies pursue digital transformation as part of an overall overhaul of business models, as legacy models no longer apply in the current technology-driven environment. As notable technology companies have disrupted entire industries over the past two decades, service companies have pursued digital transformation to remain relevant, develop a competitive edge, and to integrate successful technology innovations into their overall strategy. Many companies regard data as one of their most valuable assets, and digital transformation initiatives are often centered around creating systems and processes to unlock this value. Some of the top reasons that organizations undertake the effort is to unlock data value, to better understand their customers, and to improve products and services. Within finance, accounting, and operations functions, digital transformation initiatives have been more focused on value creation through process control, efficiency savings, and improved reporting.

The low-hanging fruit in finance, accounting, and operations functions is to automate unstructured manual spreadsheet processes using self-service analytics tooling and robotic. process automation (RPA) to increase control and to capture process efficiencies. Enhanced processing and reporting can be achieved by ingesting high-quality data into self-service analytics tools for enrichment and automated processing, before outputs are communicated ...