The company’s data journey started with a small team in organized data analytics bootcamps
At the Tableau DataFest Asia Pacific event in September 2022, Siam Kubota, an agricultural machinery manufacturing company, shared what being a data citizen means, and how the company leveraged Tableau to scale to 100 creators within two years.
At the sidelines of the virtual event, DigiconAsia caught up with Methee Srisupundit, Digital Technology Division Manager, Siam Kubota, to find out more about the company’s digital transformation journey to deliver even better customer experience via data analytics.
How did Siam Kubota begin its data journey?
Methee Srisupundit (MS): We began by forming a small group of 10 consisting of analysts and a few IT workers, who participated in a data analytics bootcamp. The bootcamp made us realize the power of data in our business.
With the support of management, this informal organized small team embarked on a data journey to create, facilitate and transform the way we use data in our business – from spreadsheets and reports, to visualizations and analytics.
Up until now, the team still helps other “data citizens” through “data doctor clinics” and project facilitators.
What were some challenges faced by the business, and how did Tableau help to address these challenges? How else has the business benefited from data use?
MS: The most common challenge that the business faces in data usage is how to explore and analyze data, specific to ad-hoc goals. For most, routine analysis can be handled through reports and spreadsheets.
But when it comes to new challenges or changes in business which need us to dig deep into details and connect across various data sources and types, it is nearly impossible to make a decision in time by using old tools. This scenario is where Tableau shines the most. Tableau helps us to freely connect, aggregate, analyze and drill down any type of data we have – both numeric or geospatial – into valuable insight, with ease.
Not only that, Tableau Cloud also helps us to exponentially analyze data in various work streams independently. Each business unit can harness the power of data through cloud deployment, automatic refreshment and notification by themselves, which help us to create “data citizens” swiftly.
In addition, we also leverage Salesforce to enhance customer care and service delivery. Through Salesforce Chat, we’re able to support inquiries on the KUBOTA online store to enable customer service and deliver better experiences for customers.
Can you share some examples of how employees at Siam Kubota use data today?
MS: Currently we provide various tools to help our business users access data easier such as data catalog (Azure Purview) and a data warehouse. With these tools, business users can explore, ask permission and request data connection by themselves, which enables them to utilize data for analysis projects, visualization, operation and monitoring by themselves.
This activity was adopted company wide not only by sales & marketing but also by manufacturing, accounting, services and even administration. The most common use case is to create an auto-refresh and auto-deliver dashboard which needs zero human intervention, and which reduces the enormous amount of workload on an analysts team and lets them focus on taking action based on this analyzed data.
How did Siam Kubota scale adoption of Tableau across departments?
MS: The key success of mass adoption is “Data Awareness” which needs to happen across the board to make everyone realize the necessity of data utilization.
But awareness is just the beginning. We announced consecutive “Data Analytics Internal Bootcamps” to educate and let our business team practice and try to adopt data in a new way. This boot camp includes both training and projects which teams need to present to the management team.
This activity boosts adoption across various fields and also creates a community of data enthusiastic people to connect and support each other.
The last piece which connects it all is the ease of access to data and tools. We provide the easiest way possible to request licenses, data connections and support, while ensuring security and governance are still in place. All these together help us grow the adoption of Tableau across work streams, organically and fast.
