Analytics Coaching: What is It and Why Should I be Interested?

INFORMS launched a multiyear program in 2018 that offers individuals a professional development opportunity, which results in assisting with the growth of analytics maturity for organizations. The Analytics Capability Evaluation (ACE) Coaching Program was developed to engage and assist organizations in developing and enhancing their analytics capabilities using analytics experts. Within the ACE Coaching Program, these experts are known as “analytics coaches.”

Coaches must complete a training course that covers topics such as governance, data and infrastructure, roles and responsibilities, and assessment models and tools. After completing the training, each coach will be able to facilitate discussions that help organizations assess analytics capability maturity and develop action plans for improvement. An INFORMS-trained coach will be able to ensure consistent results, develop and maintain a knowledge bank of best practices, and provide consistent scoring for improved confidence in organizational capability benchmarking.

You might be wondering, “why should I care about this?”

If you are an analytics practitioner or leader in an organization that depends on analytics, this program allows you to work with an expert to assess your analytics competencies, benchmark your organization against other organizations, and further develop core analytics capabilities. The program will help establish an organizational roadmap that starts at the current capability stage and ends at the desired stage over a defined timeframe. It doesn’t matter what stage of maturity your organization is currently in. This program supports any scale and type of organization and can be broken down and applied across multiple parts of the organization. Organizations can conduct an initial self-assessment online at https://analyticsmaturity.informs.org/. 

If you are an analytics practitioner, becoming a coach will help you stay sharp and relevant in the field of analytics while also helping others do the same. Coaches will learn to apply their newly gained knowledge and skills to develop organizations’ analytics capabilities. Coaches effectively become change agents in the move to promote analytics best practices.

Since inception, the ACE Subcommittee, led by Norm Reitter and Dave Saranchak, completed two rounds of research of analytics models, developed the ACE Coaching curriculum and held the inaugural, pilot ACE Coaching class with five analytics experts. They are now working to set up their first organizational assessment and schedule additional coaching classes.

The INFORMS ACE Coaching Program will promote INFORMS as the leader in organizational analytics capability assessments and further bolster the professional society as an O.R./analytics thought leader. If you are interested in an organizational assessment, becoming an analytics coach, or simply have questions about the program, contact the ACE Subcommittee: Norm Reitter ([email protected]) or Dave Saranchak ([email protected]); or you may contact INFORMS Director of Education & Industry Programs Taryn Lewis ([email protected]). 

INFORMS CAP Prep Online

During a time when most people are staying home, we wanted to remind O.R. and analytics professionals that the INFORMS CAP prep course is online. This course is designed for those who are registered to take the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) exam (or thinking about it). CAP Prep Online is instructor-led online training to help prepare you for this next step in your business analytics career. The four-week course includes three, one-hour webinars each week. Each webinar is recorded and available in the online classroom for review.

INFORMS has added the CAP Prep Premium Online course, which follows the CAP Prep Online format and provides participants with additional support to help them prepare for the CAP credential. Premium participants receive an electronic version of the “Analytics Body of Knowledge,” access to set “office hours” with the CAP Prep instructor and learning boosters designed to help retain information from in each module.

The next CAP Prep Online course (including Premium) begins May 8 and runs through June 5.

For more information and to register, visit http://info.informs.org/cap-prep-class.

For more information about INFORMS Professional Development, contact Bill Griffin ([email protected]).