Citizen Data Scientists: The Harbingers of Data Democratization

For all the possible merits of harnessing big data, there aren’t enough data scientists who can assist enterprises in mining valuable nuggets of data. By virtue of the three Vs (Volume, Velocity & Variety) which characterize big data, it’s on an exponential growth trajectory. While hyper speed networks and cloud computing services from the likes of AWS and Microsoft Azure are helping us contain the explosion of big data, we are now faced with plenty of problems.

Big data has opened up the possibility of deriving insights from a variety of perspectives. A one-size-fits-for-all approach doesn’t work for enterprises where it’s critical for decision maker of each department to get intelligent and actionable inputs. An overwhelming yet greatly skewed demand for data scientists is a natural consequence of this. Mostly because the role of a data scientist not only demands exceptional business analytical skills, but also proficiency in programming languages like Python and Java to create algorithms that work in tandem with big data architecture. The combination of these talents make them a scarce resource, so scarce that you can end up paying no less than $240,000+ for the best of them.
The ideal way to circumvent this problem is to use SaaS products that are crafted by data scientists. Some of the best SaaS products have the following in common:

• They require little to no integration with your existing systems
• They have an easy to use interface
• All possible business intelligence generation scenarios are pre-configured
• Your suggestions can be incorporated immediately

The ease of using SaaS enterprise applications has heralded the democratization of data. Such applications act as watering holes where decision makers across business functions and hierarchies can find answers to their specific business queries. Those with basic analytical skills and proficiency in excel can effortlessly use SaaS products as tools for simplifying their decision making process. Thus transforming decision makers into citizen data scientists who mobilize big data analytics to generate business intelligence through their use of SaaS applications.

Forward looking enterprises of all sizes and shape owe it to themselves to cultivate as many citizen data scientists as possible by arming them with smart SaaS applications for strengthening their position in today’s competitive landscape. Who better than those who know your business space inside out? Owing to their exhaustive business understanding, citizen data scientists have the ability to look for insights that can make a dent in the competition’s strategies.

SaaS products have the added advantage of drastically reducing dependency on the IT department. This is because such applications are hosted on the cloud. The cloud infrastructure is instrumental in lending ‘plug and play’ functionality to SaaS products. Scaling the use of such products from 10 users to thousands of users becomes an efficient and effortless task. In other words, SaaS tools facilitate rapid adoption of big data analytics to gain competitive advantage.

At Mo-Data we have developed one such big data tool that allows businesses to create an army of citizen data scientists. Data Scout is our business analytics tool that empowers you to get more out of your data in the following ways:

• Data Scout is a holistic SaaS product that combines the power of spreadsheets and popular data manipulation tools. You are not required to go through any cumbersome configuration process, you don’t need to download anything and no coding is required.

• Since Data Scout is hosted on the cloud it requires no installation and is ready for use as soon as login information lands in your inbox.

• Manipulating and tinkering with data is facilitated by an easy to use visual interface that requires you to simply use the mouse. You have complete freedom to pick and choose data sets that matter to you.

• Data Scout is loaded with data security features that ensure that any personally identifiable information (PII) is masked from the moment it is uploaded and stored on cloud encrypted non-transferable storage with SSL certificates.

• The tool is loaded with intelligent algorithms that automatically detect relationships between data sets that were previously unknown to you.

• A range of data visualization options are available that can be easily shared in the form of graphic charts which can be embedded in presentation slides.

If Data Scout sounds like the kind of tool your organization needs, then we would like to hear from you.