The COVID-19 impact on analytics professionals – TechTarget
by admin on April 13, 2020
The impact on business KPIs
Most organizations were laser-focused on digital transformation up until just a few weeks ago. In that context, the primary goal was to manage the impacts of digital disruption by becoming more agile and data-driven and providing better quality customer experiences.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an even more extreme form of disruption that is global and systemic. It’s impacting all stakeholders in all types of value chains everywhere, albeit not equally.
Some organizations are trying to keep up with the sudden and unusually high demand for necessities that has resulted from widespread panic and hoarding. Other businesses are facing an existential crisis, although some of them are trying to adapt by serving customers in new ways, such as selling products online for the first time, offering online ordering and curbside pickup or delivering orders directly to customers’ homes within hours where possible.
To date, the focus of data science and analytics has been on top-line growth, according to Forrester’s Purcell. Now companies are trying to minimize operational expenditures and optimize operations.
“KPIs need to change in the short term. There needs to be more focus on operational metrics and business continuity,” Purcell said.
For example, call center responsiveness and issue resolution times have become increasingly important as companies attempt to handle the dramatic spikes in customer service demand.
Many organizations had already been trying to lower overhead by implementing chatbots and encouraging customers to check the status of something via the company website. Now healthcare providers are using chatbots to help patients determine whether they should seek treatment for COVID-19 symptoms.
Modjeska said she’s already seeing new supply chain operating models that are focused on reshoring because businesses can’t depend on overseas suppliers. She also thinks that the last-mile delivery of products will become even more prevalent as the world recovers from the pandemic.
KPIs are changing because business models are changing. That’s where analytics and data can help figure out what patterns and trends are emerging. Natalia ModjeskaResearch director, Info-Tech Research Group
“KPIs are changing because business models are changing. That’s where analytics and data can help figure out what patterns and trends are emerging,” Modjeska said.
There’s a lot of fear and a lot of uncertainty. However, how organizations handle the present situation will likely impact their brand image now and after the crisis has subsided.
“Just from a brand perspective, this is one of those moments in history where you can cement your brand in people’s minds in a positive or negative way,” Purcell said. “If companies make the right moves — and a lot are — they have an opportunity to garner goodwill from their customer bases.”
Duffy thinks businesses should find ways to measure workforce resilience, supply chain resilience and working capital resilience as well as organizational agility. In this way, the COVID-19 impact on analytics professionals has made their insights more important for measuring those changing KPIs.
“One thing I hope comes out of this is an assessment of leadership’s ability to understand models and the importance of models,” he said.
Like Forrester’s Purcell, Duffy sees analytics professionals helping to optimize other functions in addition to sales and marketing such as HR, finance and risk management.
