Verizon

Business Challenge

In order to make effective business decisions, real-time access to data is key. Most people who need to make a decision are non-technical and often need the help of a data analyst to access the data that is needed to make that decision. To make this data available to business users, we had eight thousand pages of static reports generated every day and hundreds of visualizations, still not meeting the needs of the business. In addition, quality assurance and maintenance of these thousands of artifacts were nearly impossible. Business users were not happy with their ability to access actionable data. Data analysts were working long hours with no end in sight to develop data presentations of apparently short-term utility.

Analytics Solution

In early 2019, the data analytics team at Verizon deployed a new system that eliminated more than 95% of the static KPI reports and 80% of dashboards, replacing them with a self-service analytics tool that allows internal business clients to search for the data they need, when they need it, and to build their own visualizations. After the data analytics team provided appropriate training, business users were able to obtain and present the data they need on their own, seeking assistance from data analysts only when faced with a problem. The new solution was rolled out organization-wide and was a new way of accessing data for business users.

Impact

• Eliminate manual effort: Eliminated more than 95% of KPI reports and about 80% of dashboards that were used inefficiently to monitor business performance.
• Adoption: Business users can now develop visualizations by searching with the help of minimal training. From a relatively small team that developed dashboards and reports, thousands of employees are now able to develop visualizations by searching. As of November 2020, we have more than 3,000 users accessing this relatively new system.
• Speed: Time to develop ad hoc report/insight has been significantly reduced, from two weeks down to a few hours or minutes depending on the complexity of the need.
• Throughput: The number of actionable ad hoc analyses has increased from a few hundred per month to several thousand.