Philippines Analytics Review – 2016

There is no doubt that analytics is now a big deal in the Philippines.

Now that 2016 is in the books, I can proudly say I spent the better part of the past year helping Filipino get more analytics in their businesses.

My primary goal for the year has been meet, so let’s recap how that happened…

My involvement in empower Filipino companies, students and professionals to make data-driven decisions has renewed my passion for being a top name brand for analytics in the Philippines.

As I think back the Recruitment Analytics training that DMAIPH and Sonic Analytics put on early in the year, I think about how HR professionals are now actively looking to get more analytics in their business.

The simple fact is there are more white collar, professional staff jobs out there then there are qualified candidates. And its only getting worse. Recruitment Analytics is the only way to stay on the cutting edge.

This was even more evident when I spoke in front of close to 100 HR professionals at a workshop called HR & Recruitment Analytics Techniques put on by my good friends at Ariva Events Management.

We spent the day talking about how get IT when it comes to recruitment. The 3 I’s of analytics; identify, inventory and integrate data as well as the 3 T’s; talent, technology and technique needed to make sense to the data.

I once again joined Ariva for their annual Philippines HR Congress. One of the central themes of the conference attended by over 1000 HR professionals was Aligning HR Strategy with Analytics.

HR teams are sitting on a gold mine of insightful data, but in most cases have not been able to take advantage of it.

Big Data Analytics has come so fast and furious, that it takes a lot of effort to become analytics champions and try and move a company culture towards more data-driven decision-making. This was top of mind for all the attendees.

At the same time I have been doing speaking and public training, CHED has been training teachers on how to teach business analytics. Their efforts to explain the Fundamentals of Business Analytics to faculty and students will go a long way in making the Philippines a significant analytics hub.

I have been honored to have helped several schools in adding my two centavos to the discussion about analytics careers for fresh grads.

Another moment of great personal pride came when I published my newest book, Putting Your Data to Work. This guidebook is designed to help Filipino professionals who aren’t too familiar with analytics, get started.

In early November, I was part of a panel discussion at the Big Data Conference at Enduran college. I was and still am super excited about the topic, The Future of Big Data Analytics in the Philippines. This is my passion, turning students and young professionals interested in analytics on to the huge opportunity they have in front of them.

A week later I conducted a Data Analytics seminar with DMAIPH and Sonic Analytics. The primary goal here was to demonstrate how having a thorough understanding of the data environment in a business can lead to huge successes.

Next up was a job fair at Trinoma mall put on by Job Quest PH. My goal here was to recruiting a few young professionals looking to get started in analytics as DMAIPH is looking for some marketing analysts.

A few days later I attended a Data Science event being set up by my good friends at Talas. This free event saw a meeting of the minds of a lot of thought leaders in data science as well as industry leaders in employing analysts and data science. Pretty exciting stuff.

The final 2016 event on my schedule was another full day training organized by my key business partner Ariva. The topic, Big Data and Business Intelligence, which proved to be a great opportunity to help people gain a stronger handle on analytics and how they can be an analytics champion in their business.

2016 turned out to be my most successful year yet. Analytics in now mainstream and I love it.

Analytics in the Philippines – The Philippines is at the center of the action when it comes to solutions to the global need for analytics. Blessed with a solid foundation of young, educated and English speaking workforce, companies around the world are look for Filipino analytics talent to fill analytics positions. DMAIPH was set up to facilitate these solutions and bring the talent and the business together. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly so we can help you take advantage of this unique global opportunity.

Big Data Analytics: Interpretation and Assessing Results > 2/21/17

I will be speaking on February 21, 2017 at Discovery Suites, Ortigas Center, Pasig City on Data Analytics.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a little more detail about each section, next up…

Enabling Your Business to Make Smarter Decisions Section 3: Interpretation—Assessing Results

Participants will be able to Articulate the Importance of Accurately Interpreting Data. Having the right data at your fingertips is essential to being successful with analytics.

We will also be able to Determine and Analyze Risk, Uncertainty, and Probability. With so much data, you need to know what data to analyze when to stay ahead of the game.

I will also talk about how to Spot Patterns, Trends, and Fluctuations Through Correlation, Regression, and Descriptive Statistics. Analytics techniques like these will keep you on the cutting edge.

Attendees will be able to Understand when to employ Descriptive, Predictive or Prescriptive Analytics. Each type has a specific use, make sure you know when to use each one.

And finally we will discuss how to Build Data Models. You don’t need to have high priced, complicated software to do some basic data modeling. I’ll show you some examples.

That’s section three… I’ll go over the last section in the next few days.

DMAIPH offers a wide range of analytics centric training solutions for professionals and students via public, in-house, on-site, and academic settings.

We tailor each training event to meet the unique needs of the audience.

If you need empowerment and skills enhancement to optimize the use of analytics in your organization, we are here to help.

Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to set up a free consultation on which of our DMAIPH analytics training solutions is best for you.

Survey Results: Devote More Time For Data Analysis

Most Analysts Spend 50% of Their Time Finding Data

%	Finding	Analyzing	Reporting
10	12%	6%	33%
20	14%	10%	39%
30	20%	31%	24%
40	6%	14%	2%
50	31%	16%	2%
60	14%	18%	0
70	0%	0%	0
80	0%	2%	0
90	0%	0	0
100	0%	0	0

Most analysts spend most of their time finding data.

Among other thing this can mean they are setting up data mining or data gathering process to look for the data or it can mean they reviewing their data for relevancy.

My experience is that when you spending this much time on the finding the right data phase it reflects a poorly structured data environment or a unfamiliarity with the data needed.

Dirty data is also a big time waste.

Experience is the best solution for challenges with finding data. The fact the finding phase % is so high speaks to both the explosion in the 3 V’s of Big Data (Velocity, Volume and Variety) as well as the number of analytics newbies.

To me this should be no more than 20% of your time.

I expected finding data would be the biggest chunk, but was surprised that over 50% of my analyst connections using at least 40% of their time finding data.

If you have one day to answer a key business question, this means you are using your entire morning just finding the data.

When you get back from lunch you haven’t even started the actual analysis yet and the clock is ticking.

Data is based on a survey I sent to 3,000 of my LinkedIn connections who are either analysts or work closely with data and analysis.

Analytics Survey – DMAIPH conducts quarterly analytics surveys to collect data on current trends in analytics. We specialize in surveys that assess analytics culture and measuring how aligned an organization is to using data and analytics in its decision-making. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to find out more about how DMAIPH can conduct surveys to help you assess the analytics culture in your business.

Quick Analytics Career Question

Greetings to You My Valued LinkedIn Connection,

I was talking with a young professional just getting started in his analytics career. During our conversation we discussed what is most important to being a great analyst. With that in mind, I’d ask you to share your thoughts.

In your opinion, of the following ways to learn about analytics, which one has been the most important in your career path?

Formal Education – A degree or certificate in an analytics related field.
Self-Learning – Using trial and error and online resources.
Subject Matter Experts – Being trained/mentored by an expert.
Seminars/Workshops – Attending events to acquire new knowledge.
Technical Training – Attend training on specific technical areas.

Thanks for sharing. As always I will roll up all the replies I get and blog about it.

Dan Meyer, Analytics Champion, http://www.dmaiph.com

The Analytics of Measurement and Evaluation

By taking inspiration from the way corporations use business analytics to optimize their Big Data, our Program Measurement and Evaluation processes can be greatly enhanced.

To understand the connection, let’s start with the mission of the Measurement & Evaluation program.

“The ability to effectively evaluate projects, programs and processes is becoming increasingly essential to organizational success today. American University’s online Master of Science (MS) in Measurement & Evaluation provides you with the knowledge to lead these evaluation efforts and the technical skills needed for analytically demanding roles in upper management.” ¹

A good analytics solution constructs a universal framework for collecting, analyzing and utilizing data to determine project effectiveness and efficiency.

Likewise, an efficient measurement and evaluation of projects, programs and policies using analytics should ensure success. An analytics centered approach will likely work with corporate, non-profit and governmental organizations across various sectors and industries.

We can look specifically to two key business analytics concepts I have used in my twenty plus years of analysis work; Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Data Visualization. The key to my success was my ability to answer important business questions using analytics.

Analytics is generally defined as the discovery of patterns in data that provides insight and identifies opportunities. As Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP said about analytics, “The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.” ²

Organizations that invest in analytics generally make much better business decisions then one’s that don’t. In fact, IBM found that organizations who use analytics are up to 12x more efficient and 33% more profitable. ³

In the corporate world, business analytics is widely use to track, analyze and report Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

KPIs are rolled up to senior leadership to drive business strategy, identify and mitigate risk and to optimize operational productivity.

This approach is very similar to the way projects in the Measurement and Evaluation are tracked, analyzed and reported.

So we need to ask ourselves, what are the KPIs for the project, program or process we are measuring? What points of data need to be captured, analyzed and reported to determine success?

A successful analyst is able to remove the noise when analyzing data and isolate what matters most to his or her organization. That is what is at the heart of measurement, knowing what data is important and what is not.

Once we have the right data, we can measure what the data tells us to determine success, causality, impact… whatever the outcome may be.

A quote often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker perfectly sums up why big corporations rely so heavily on analytics when he said “What gets measured, gets managed.”

Similarly, policy decisions can be made based on what is measured. Project funding can be impacted by what is measured. Process optimization can be directed by what is measured.

Once we are able to measure what is truly important to policy-makers, managers and decision-makers, we need to make sure we present the data in a compelling way.

This is where data visualization comes in.

I often make the analogy that if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a good pie chart is worth a thousand rows of data.

We all know that most people learn more by seeing something then by reading or hearing it. Data visualization takes that a step further.

Data visualization is not only important to presenting our insights but also for exploring the data for insights. Most people find it easier to process information when it is in the form of a picture then a collection of data.

Chip & Dan Heath, Authors of Made to Stick, found that, “Data are just summaries of thousands of stories – tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.”

The ability to take all of the data gathered in the measurement phase and use it in the evaluation phase will make a significant difference in the success of the project, program or process you are working on.

According to the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, “Program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about projects, policies and programs, particularly about their effectiveness and efficiency”. ⁵

Data Visualization can be used to paint a picture of a program, project or policy that influences outcomes based on the KPIs. And by appealing to the basic human fascination with stories, a persuasive graph, chart or infographic can make all the difference in the world.

By adopting the business analytics concepts of KPIs and Data Visualization, and applying them to the world of programs, policies and projects, you can find the same level of success I found in the corporate world.

American University, “Certificate in Measurement & Evaluation” http://programs.online.american.edu/online-graduate-certificates/project-monitorin Accessed October 20, 2016
Carly Fiorina Speech from December 6, 2004 http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/04openworld.html . Accessed October 20, 2016
Simon Thomas, Senior Analytics Consultant for IBM https://youtu.be/Zi8jTbXnamY . Viewed October 20, 2016
Chip & Dan Heath, Authors of Made to Stick, http://heathbrothers.com. Accessed October 20, 2016
OPRE, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/resource/the-program-managers-guide-to-evaluation-second-edition. Accessed October 20, 2016

Analytics Education – Facilitating a mastery of the fundamentals of analytics is what DMAIPH does best. All across the world, companies are scrambling to hire analytics talent to optimize the big data they have in their businesses. We can empower students and their instructors with the knowledge they need to prepare for careers in analytics. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly so we can set a guest lecturer date, On-the-Job Training experience or other analytics education solution specifically tailored to your needs.

DMAIPH Quick Data Survey

A few months back I sent a quick survey to 3,000 of my LinkedIn connections who are either analysts or work closely with data and analysis.

Here is the question I asked.

Greetings! I’m hoping you can help me gather some data for a book I’m working on. If you had to breakdown the work you do into 3 buckets; finding data, analyzing data and reporting data, what would the % of each be? A quick reply with your breakdown would be hugely helpful in my research. Thanks! Dan Meyer, Analytics Champion, www.dmaiph.com

I got back over 400 replies.

Here is how they broke down.

%	Finding	Analyzing	Reporting
10	12%	6%	33%
20	14%	10%	39%
30	20%	31%	24%
40	6%	14%	2%
50	31%	16%	2%
60	14%	18%	0
70	0%	0%	0
80	0%	2%	0
90	0%	0	0
100	0%	0	0

The higher the %, the more each analyst spent time doing that particular phase of analytics.

Here are some of my takeaways from this simple (and very nonscientific survey)

I was surprised to see 45% spend half their time or more on finding data. To me this is one of the telling signs that Big Data has led to a shortage of top analytics talent.

Only 1 out of 4 analysts are spending 20% of less of their time finding data. These are generally senior analysts, well established in their company.

Only half of my analyst connections are spending 40% of more of their time on conducting analysis. With significant time spent on finding and/or reporting data you can imagine a lot of important discoveries are being missed and opportunities lost.

Only 1 out of 3 analysts are getting spend my recommended 50% or more of their time actually doing analysis work.

Based on my survey, reporting gets shortchanged a lot. All in, 96% of respondents spend 30% of their time of less on reporting.

My recommendation is that you spend about 30-40% of your time on the reporting aspect, and sadly only 4% of my analytics connections are able to do that.

In an ideal world, I would expect an analyst to spend no more the 30% of their time on finding data, and at least 30% on reporting their findings, leaving more or less 40% to do the actual analysis.

This breakdown is based on my own experience as an analyst as well as seeing how analyst working for data-driven companies work.

Only about 30% of my 400+ analytics focused LinkedIn connections come close to meeting my recommended breakdowns.

Which means I have a lot of work to do.

Data Analytics to the Rescue

I am a big fan of super hero movies.

One of the reasons why is that in many ways I consider myself to be somewhat of a super hero.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a super hero is “a figure endowed with extraordinary or superhuman powers which are used for fighting evil.”

In my world, evil is analogous to ignorance… or the lack of information needed to make good decisions.

I live to fight this fight.

My extraordinary gifts are being blessed with a keen analytical mind and the ability to empower others to unleash their analytical abilities.

Analytics was not my career choice, but my innate curiosity and passion for answering questions put me in a position to become an analytics expert.

I have all the training and skills an educator needs, but instead of teaching in the classroom I train out in the business world.

On February, 21, 2017 I will be hosting a training on Data Analytics. E-mail us at analytics@dmaiph.com to register or get more info.

This will be so awesome.

I get to do what I do best.

And I get to do it in my adopted homeland.

I get to use my gifts to help Filipino professional unlock the curiosity buried inside them and use that to help empower more data-driven decisions in their organization.

#IamDMAIPH

Analytics Training – DMAIPH offers a wide range of analytics centric training solutions for professionals and students via public, in-house, on-site, and academic settings. We tailor each training event to meet the unique needs of the audience. If you need empowerment and skills enhancement to optimize the use of analytics in your organization, we are here to help. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to set up a free consultation on which of our DMAIPH analytics training solutions is best for you.

The Stuff of Legends

The 2016 San Francisco Giants beat the odds.

After having a horrible second half of the season, even the most die-hard Giants fans were on the edge of giving up.

But they persisted.

They didn’t give up.

The keep fighting until the last day of the season.

Then they made the playoffs.

And they beat the odds again and beat the New York Mets.

They got their shot and they made it.

Now they have even bigger odds facing them to beat the Chicago Cubs.

You can look at all the data you want, but sometimes it just comes down to things hard to measure.

Like heart.

Like persistence.

Like belief.

You need these things to make it.

I love data and use it all the time, but sometimes in life you just can’t explain how some can beat the odds.

Like the 2016 Giants.

This is the stuff of legends.

Analytics Leadership – DMAIPH specializes in arming the Data-Driven Leader with the tools and techniques they need to build and empower an analytics centric organization. Analytics leadership requires a mastery of not just analytics skill, but also of nurturing an analytics culture. We have guided thousands of Filipino professionals to become better analytics leaders. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to discuss a uniquely tailored strategy to ensure you are the top of your game when it comes to Analytics Leadership.

Why Analytics Projects Fail – #7: Lack of Talent

When analytics projects fail due to lack of talent, this is generally symptomatic of a bigger cause. Lack of talent is something that can be much harder to fix then just hiring someone.

One of the reasons behind the lack of talent may be a misunderstanding of the project by senior leadership or just an overall lack of management support. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the best thing you can do is work with a senior leader to help them understand what level of talent is needed. When you do this you can enhance your analytics solutions and have them advocate for you to get the right talent.

Lack of vision and/or focus by your organization can also result in not having the right talent available for the job. It might not even be the analyst, but the it might be something missing within the development team or the project implantation team. This generally ends up with analytics solutions being full of patchwork shortcuts that limit their impact.

Lack of funding can also be an issue, where your organization just can’t offer a competitive package to the available talent. This is becoming even more of an issue lately as good analytics talent is in high demand and the supply can’t come close to keeping up.

Having the right analyst, with the right skills sets, the right training and the right tools aligned to give your business a good analytics solution misfires a lot. There are hundreds of business intelligence tools, thousands of types of databases, all generating very unique reports. When one of these elements does not match up it can easily cause a failure due to lack of talent.

My suggestion if you think you have a lack of talent problem is draw some kind of process flow. Who are all the players in each part of the process? What applications are used to collect, store, analyze and report your data? What programming or language skills are required? When you lay all this out then you have an idea of what skills and experience your analyst needs. Combine this with the people side of the job, what communication skills, what data visualization skills, what project skills does your analyst need? If you don’t have anyone in the organization with this list of skills, you need to either hire one or create one.

When you look at job postings right not for analysts, its easy to see that requirements vary greatly across positions. No two companies have the exact same analytics needs not employee analysts the exact same way. So if you are going out to hire one, make sure you have a clear idea of what you need and not get caught up in looking for an analytics rock star.

It is often easier to actually look inside and find someone who can be trained to take on the role. Having internal business knowledge and knowing the organizational culture are huge plusses. A lot of time because that person doesn’t have the skills on their resume yet, they get excluded. However, I have always favored promoting from within and upskilling then going out and hiring an unknown variable.

So if you think lack of talent is killing you analytics project and are not sure what to do next. Connect with me. Let’s build a job description that tailor fits your needs and see where the best place is to find them. It’s probably someone sitting in a cube next to you.

Analytics Culture – The key to using analytics in a business is like a secret sauce that fuels Data-Driven Decison-Making. It is a unique combination of analytics talent, technology and technique that are brought together to enrich and empower an organization.

A successful analytics culture is not easy to create, but DMAIPH can show you how. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly so we can build a strategic plan to turn your company into analytics driven success story.

Analytics Tip > Keep Your Data Clean

http://bicorner.com/2015/03/22/5-nuggets-from-the-big-data-driven-business/

Came across this interesting post on LinkedIn…

Database quality now has an unprecedented impact on the success of Big Data initiatives. To ensure that these databases are as productive as possible, Marketers must maintain good data hygiene.

Five steps for cleaner data:

1) Make sure your data entry team is keying in data accurately in the first place. Make the data entry team a priority.

2) Incentivize your sales team, call-center squad and other customer facing employees to regularly request updated contact information and other data from the customers they encounter.

3) Use available software, such as Trillium, to streamline the process of cleansing, correcting and updating email and postal addresses.

4) Allow customers access to their records so they can help keep them accurate. Consider offering discounts as an incentive for customers to participate.

5) Regularly contact customers, either via phone or email, to update records. This approach is critical with the most important accounts.

Having clean data is very, very important.

I have my admin team refresh my connection data on LinkedIn on a regular basis so our mailings lists stay up to date.

We also have audits of our client pipeline to make sure all relevant applicant data is captured for analysis.

Make sure you put some thought into how to keep your data clean!

Analytics is the application of using data and analysis to discover patterns in data. DMAIPH specializes in empowering and enabling leaders, managers, professionals and students with a mastery of analytics fundamentals.

DMAIPH is also a founding member of the Analytics Council of the Philippines and specializes in arming the Data-Driven Leader with the tools and techniques they need to build and empower an analytics centric organization. Analytics leadership requires a mastery of not just analytics skill, but also of nurturing an analytics culture. We have guided thousands of Filipino professionals to become better analytics leaders. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to discuss a uniquely tailored strategy to ensure you are the top of your game when it comes to Analytics Leadership.

	DMAIPH on You Don’t Build A Busine…
	Ioliveiraserpa on You Don’t Build A Busine…
	DMAIPH on The Current Analytics Talent L…
	John on The Current Analytics Talent L…
	Dominic on Outsourcing Tip > Size the…