Working with Tideworks Insight and the Tideworks team over the past few months, one company has discovered its secret sauce to building a stellar data team. Read their tips here to understand their recipe for success and learn how you can apply the same ideas to your own organization and operation.

What Team Member Should Implement Tideworks Insight?

Be it Operations, IT, or Executives, all of these team members have plenty of work on their plates and each specializes in their own specific areas. For a tool like Tideworks Insight to work, all of these professionals need to work together cohesively. That being said, who is it that should spearhead the implementation of Tideworks Insight in a business?

Is it the Operations staff? They know the business process on the ground but might struggle with the data analytics functions of the tool.

How about IT? They are the experts with the data and architecture, however, they are unfamiliar with how the Operations teams utilize the tool and how they work on a day-to-day basis.

The Executives? Yeah, as if they need another thing on their plate…

For many companies, this question brings up the need for a dedicated data analyst; one who is familiar with the operations process can analyze data and is comfortable working with all of the teams involved. By adding this crucial piece to the team, IT, Operations, and others are free to focus on their day-to-day work. The data analyst can keep all teams in the loop through the implementation process. Plus, by having this process be on-terminal, it becomes easier for the Operations teams (who ultimately are the final users of the tool) to buy in due to the ease of access to the analyst.

Download our Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) Case Study to explore how Tideworks implemented Insight at MIT leading to increased productivity and minimized downtime.

The Data Analyst

A data analyst does not have to be a data scientist. In fact, they don’t even have to be good at advanced math, and they don’t need to have prior experience with BI Tools or Data Platforms.

When identifying this person, look for someone who is simply not afraid of data and taking initiative. Who in your organization has a knack for process improvement and technology? Those are the key traits of a data analyst.

The data analyst is the connective tissue that holds the team together. As the subject matter expert of the data platform, they ensure that questions and requests are routed to the right channel and help Operations translate business challenges into data questions.

Building Your Team

Now that you have identified your data analyst to spearhead the project, one of the most important decisions to make is who will be on the team that will implement Tideworks Insight? Of course, IT will be involved, and they are vital to a successful implementation, but what about Operations? They are, at the end of the day, the end-users of the system. At a minimum, members from the following organizational divisions should be included in the Tideworks Insight Team:

• Vessel Ops
• Terminal Ops
• Information Technology (IT)
• Data Analyst
• Executive Management

Each of these specialties represents an integral piece to the puzzle and it is their expertise that the data analyst relies on.

In addition to these members, having a Tideworks representative on the team can become key in getting Tideworks Insight off the ground for any business. Tideworks representatives are heavily involved with everything from setting up connections, teaching members about the Insight database set up, Tableau tricks, and much more. On top of that, Tideworks reps can be a touchpoint in communicating back to developers to provide any needed changes to the systems.

Once you have a team together, it’s time to dig into the data.

Getting the Right Data to the Right People

Doing data validation the right way can have returns beyond simply accurate data, and it is another key ingredient to a successful data team.

Integrating the data team—specifically the data analyst—into operations meetings is critical. This gives the team an idea of what data matters and allows them to interact with operations to understand their data needs. Being involved in these meetings allows the data analyst to bring relevant analysis into the conversation that ops may not be aware existed, or was even possible.

During these meetings, it’s important to make time to discuss the accuracy of the data and which visualizations are most useful for your organization. Most importantly, don’t let erroneous data discourage the team. Bad data happens…a lot—use it as a chance to collaborate and discuss ideas for better techniques. The data validation and visualization process will improve over time. The end result? Relevant, actionable data that improves operations.

Download our Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) Case Study to explore how Tideworks implemented Insight at MIT to dramatically improve data accuracy and eliminate needless redundancy in reporting. 

Momentum

Moving to become a data-driven team and business takes a lot. Technology, time, buy-in, and, of course, data. And it certainly doesn’t happen on day one. The consistent building of momentum is key.

As your organization gets started working with Tideworks Insight, getting initial buy-in may be difficult. It may be a case of doing things how they have always been done or perhaps your team does not understand the potential of being data-driven.

Through the data visualization process, your organization can go from crawling to walking. As the team gains confidence and understanding, you can begin to leverage the capability of Tideworks Insight to provide data that helps with ongoing and new projects. Your team can finally start sprinting.

However, the biggest thrill comes when you dream of what the next stage could look like if your organization stays on this trajectory, and how that will transform the way you operate and do business.

Gaining this momentum takes time and effort, and momentum building never ends. Encourage creativity. Challenge the status quo. Be open to making mistakes. A commitment to hypothesizing, testing, and executing key operational changes based on data, from the top down, will show Tideworks Insight’s true power today and well into the future.