So, what are these trends telling us? First, they’re telling us that business units are becoming increasingly dependent on data science and analytics. It’s no longer enough to rely on IT to analyze complex problems. Secondly, there is a dire need for professionals who understand both how the business runs and how advanced analytics can function to improve business outcomes.
Technology Is Failing to Keep Up with the Rise of Citizen Data Scientists
By their nature, citizen data scientists are not software engineers. They have skill sets that overlap IT, business domain expertise, and analytics skills. They are at the intersection of multiple areas of expertise within the business and can thus communicate across all three. However, because they typically lack a deep level of data science knowledge, like programming and technical integration requirements, they need access to a different set of tools. These CDSs are accustomed to working in Business Intelligence tools and Excel spreadsheets, so advanced analytics solutions need to offer similar qualities, such as 1) ease-of-use, 2) clear, concise, self-guided training, 3) rapid time to value, and 4) little to no dependency on IT for support.
Think about someone designing a website. Historically, this had to be done using programming languages. Today, however, it can be done by nearly anyone — without having a major impact on quality.
Here’s the problem. While citizen data scientists are growing in demand and business units increasingly need to leverage advanced analytics for decision making, there is a major gap. Advanced analytics technology has not kept up with the speed of this trend. There are two issues here:
- Tools that offer predictive and prescriptive analytics capabilities are over-simplified in order to cater to business users. Because the “math” is more simplistic and the tools are “one size fits all,” value-add suffers tremendously.
- Tools that offer highly advanced analytic capabilities, like constraint-based optimization, offer tremendous value but cater to data scientists. Someone like a CDS can’t easily use or manipulate these tools, thus limiting value-add by hindering the ability of a business unit to incorporate these types of tools into planning processes.
River Logic Bridges the Gap in Advanced Analytics
River Logic is the breakthrough, disruptive technology that changes all of that. Now, companies who need to solve complex business problems without sacrificing agility, ease-of-use, transparency, or value have the technology they need.
No more relying on programmers to write complex code.
No more relying on simple, rules-based systems to address strategic, tactical, and operational challenges.
No more conducting complex analytics projects in a lab and failing to operationalize them throughout the business.
River Logic brings prescriptive analytics via constraint-based optimization into the hands of business professionals and citizen data scientists. Without having any experience in programming, optimization, or data science, anyone within the business unit now has the capability to apply prescriptive analytics to everyday business needs across planning, operations, strategy, and decision-making.
River Logic’s prescriptive analytics platform combines the scale and power of Microsoft Azure’s cloud with an innovative application experience that contains user-friendly data visualization capabilities through Microsoft PowerBI. Additionally, the technology seamlessly integrates with other analytical technologies.
River Logic’s SmartSolveTM Brings Optimization to the Masses
A key component of River Logic’s technology is its ground-breaking SmartSolveTM, which takes a customer’s data and applies it to a digital planning twin. A digital planning twin is a digital version of a business that realistically represents all processes, constraints, decision variables, objectives, and financial metrics at the level of detail required for planning, including strategic, tactical or near-operational. SmartSolveTM utilizes the digital twin, in near real time and at massive cloud scale, to deliver on any customer’s optimization scenario requirements.
SmartSolveTM Features and Capabilities
So what exactly is SmartSolveTM, and why is it so revolutionary in the world of planning and decision support?
SmartSolve™ is real-time optimization that’s always on, always available, and massively scalable through being architected as a cloud service. Users of all professional backgrounds can run thousands of scenarios simultaneously in order to optimize across their operations at scale. Thus, businesses can identify and consider more relevant trade-offs and more “what-ifs” in real-time in order to produce the best optimized outcomes.
In a world of constantly changing economic and business conditions, SmartSolveTM delivers automated real-time optimization of processes using constant feeds of data and producing optimized (solved) results alongside regular on-demand capabilities. SmartSolveTM uses AI to produce and review automated scenario results. It has the ability to highlight high-impact solve outcomes while disregarding zero or minimal impact results. Planners and users are alerted whenever a (new) significant scenario result is generated for review.
SmartSolveTM Is Available Through Cloud or as a Service
Another major benefit of River Logic’s SmartSolveTM is that it’s also available separate from our prescriptive analytics platform, making it even more accessible to organizations and users worldwide. Customers and partners can leverage it as a service into other software technology, or they can access it during custom implementations. Further, it is 100% configurable based on a customer’s needs around user roles and permissions.
If you’re interested in learning more about SmartSolveTM, schedule a call via this link with one of our experts.
References
- “How to Enable Self-service Analytics,” Idoine, Carlie, Gartner, 9 September 2019.
- “Build a Comprehensive Ecosystem for Citizen Data Scientists to Drive Impactful Analytics,” Idoine, Carlie, Gartner, 27 August 2019.
