As a more positive phase of the COVID-19 crisis plays out—a phase that involves vaccination and therefore increased optimism that that big, beautiful light at the end of the tunnel may actually be right around the corner—it’s easy to look back on the past year and come to some realizations. 
 
One is that when businesses are forced to work through disruption, conventional answers aren’t sufficient, there’s no time to wait for answers, and the process of finding answers can’t be limited to a select few. 
 
Sure, maybe all of us already knew this. Maybe if quizzed before such a major event we would’ve said all of that sounds logical. Maybe. 
 
What we know for sure is that we can—and should—incorporate those truths into the foundation of our organizations, so that when the next great challenge presents itself, we’re well prepared. 
 
As part of the making of the Domopalooza 2021 keynote, I got a chance to sit down with some of the folks who are doing just that. Like Cameron Davies, who as Yum! Brands‘ chief data officer has overseen the building of data into the kinds of tools that the restaurant giant’s employees can easily use to make decisions.
 
I also talked with Emerson‘s director of data and analytics for cold chain, Charles Larkin, who revealed how the implementation of self-service analytics has opened up a whole new world of possibilities to both the company’s internal teams and customers. 
 
I saw this moment coming. Or at the very least, I was confident it would come. As I said during the keynote, Domo originated from an idea I had that revolved around the desire to access all of my data in real-time. 
 
I remember wondering, “Why can’t I run my business from anywhere I want? And if I could run my business from any device, why couldn’t everyone in my business do this, too? And what about my partners? My vendors? My customers?” 
 
Basically, why can’t BI be for everyone? 
 
And so, here we are. More than a decade after I asked those questions, that type of BI—which is so much of what constitutes modern BI—is what the market demands. And a Domo strength that was highlighted in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms report—consumer-design focus—is helping businesses experience it. 
 
That’s an exciting proposition for us. But I won’t be satisfied until that attribute makes for a level of data literacy and accessibility within organizations that is similar to how comfortable we are with our phones. You know, when the tools we rely on to do our jobs become second nature—or even invisible—to us. 
 
I’ve heard this sort of thing described as unconscious competence. That’s the state we need to get to with modern BI. Because when we do, no crisis—no matter how big or unusual or intimidating—will have us searching for a light at the end of a tunnel.

To see what other companies are leveraging modern BI to gain a competitive advantage and put themselves in a position to succeed no matter what comes their way, click here.