Now and Next: A Maturity Model to Guide Analytics Growth

Maturity models concerning the analytics function within organisations cover several characteristics such as data, leadership support, processes, data management, governance, technology and people. Existing models, however, focus on diagnosis rather than guiding future developments, and overlook the importance of IT/Analytics-Business alignment. This paper presents a maturity framework which addresses these two shortcomings and distinguishes between two aspects of maturity – a “state” aspect which is used to access the present situation in the company, and a “management” aspect which analyses existing processes to establish the next stage of the company’s growth in the analytics area. The framework’s utility has been demonstrated through obtaining feedback from a number of managers, who have praised the ability of the framework to integrate diagnosis of the current situation with guidance on the next steps necessary to develop analytics maturity.