Delwyn Armstrong | Head of Analytics
Sharon Puddle | Head of Digital Transformation
We had the privilege to be part of the customer panel at the Qlik Data Revolution event on 25 September 2018 in Sydney, Australia to talk about our Data Discovery programme. At the event we heard from other customers RICOH and CHEP about their journey so far with Qlik, but the main focus of the day was on data literacy.
We heard presentations from Jane Crofts who is the founder of Data to the People, Babar Jan-Haleem from AWS, James Fisher who is the Senior VP Strategic Marketing from Qlik, and Jordan Morrow who is the Global Head of Data Literacy from Qlik.
Why is data literacy important?
According to the speakers, we are part of the 4th industrial revolution with the increasing availability of data from a multitude of sources, including big data. Data is the 'new oil' and we need to make better use of it within our organisations to drive digital transformation.
A survey carried by Qlik showed that 94% of people believe that data helps them do their jobs better, and that greater data literacy would give them more credibility.
Data literacy needs to become a basic skill for all staff, but having the right technology to support data literacy is also important to allow adequate explanation of analyses, and the ability for users to manipulate data easily.
How can we improve data literacy?
Some take home messages from the speakers about how to improve data literacy and engagement at all levels of the organisation were:
- the importance of democratising data so that everyone has access to the same information
- ensuring that you involve subject matter experts, the people who are working on the floor, when developing reports, dashboards and visualisations so that the information is meaningful
- the need to create a strategy to increase data literacy across the organisation
- that data literacy is experiential - you need to understand both the data context and the business contect
Data Discovery with Qlik
We have a strong mandate from our chief executive, Dale Bramley, to have a clinical focus for our Data Discovery programme. This means that all of the Qlik Sense apps developed by our team have a clinical lead, and they are involved right through from initial concept design and development of measures, through to UAT and sign-off.
So how are we helping to improve data literacy across the organisation?
- By having an enterprise-wide license which allows us to make our published apps accessible to staff at all levels of the organisation
- By working with our clinical leads and services to ensure that data presented in our Qlik apps is clinically relevant and meaningful
- By increasing analytics capability within our organisation by supporting a network of clinicians to develop their health informatics and analytics skills
- By finding champions within services who can help to showcase and share published apps
- By working with people on a one-on-one or team basis to help them navigate through the apps
Eighteen months down the track we now have 28 published Qlik apps, and with another 20+ apps in development or UAT phase. We're very proud of our data discovery journey so far and what we've managed to achieve. A big thank you to Qlik APAC for the opportunity to create a video to share our story about how we are transforming care with Qlik.
Video Credit: Andrew Forsyth and Andy Grant from Pemberton Productions