New year, new impact: 4 fresh resolutions to ignite your 2026 analytics strategy

Don’t just plan, resolve

January is a time for fresh starts. We set new goals, build new habits, and map out a vision for the year ahead. While you’re planning your business objectives, why not apply that same ambition to your data strategy?

Your analytics platform is more than just a reporting tool, it’s an engine for growth and innovation. This year, resolve to move beyond business as usual and unlock its full potential. Here are four fresh resolutions to heighten your data analytics strategy in ibi™ WebFOCUS® and make 2026 a year of unprecedented impact.

1. Resolution: I will become a data storyteller

In 2025, you built dashboards. In 2026, you will build narratives. A dashboard shows data, but a data story persuades and drives action. This year, resolve to move beyond just presenting KPIs and instead, craft compelling visual stories that guide your audience to a clear conclusion.

Use WebFOCUS® Designer to create infographic-style reports and dashboards. Go beyond standard charts by incorporating text, images, and custom layouts to explain the "so what" behind the data. Create a clear flow that walks a user from a high-level summary to the detailed evidence, making your case in a way that’s impossible to ignore.

2. Resolution: I will foster a culture of 'co-creation'

The old model of BI—where the business files a ticket and IT delivers a report weeks later—is broken. This process is slow, frustrating, and often results in a tool that doesn't quite meet the business need.

This year, resolve to foster a collaborative partnership between IT and the business. The goal is co-creation, not fulfillment. Use WebFOCUS’s metadata layer for what it does best: IT defines the secure, governed "sandbox" of trusted data. Then, empower your business analysts to build, iterate, and innovate within that sandbox using the intuitive self-service tools. This agile approach leads to better, more relevant analytics, built in a fraction of the time.

3. Resolution: I will put the right data in the right hands, automatically

Even the most brilliant analysis is useless if no one is looking at it when a critical event happens. Relying on users to manually check for changes is a reactive strategy that leaves value on the table. This year, resolve to move from a "pull" to a "push" strategy by automatically delivering critical insights directly into your team's workflow.

This is a core strength of the WebFOCUS platform, powered by its sophisticated distribution engine, ReportCaster. Now, it's not just about scheduling and distributing critical analysis via email. As of WebFOCUS v9.3.6, meet your users where they work by delivering these insights directly into the collaboration tools your teams live in every day, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack. Imagine a critical sales report automatically burst and delivered not just to each manager's inbox, but directly into their team's private Slack channel every Monday morning, sparking immediate conversation and action. It’s about ensuring critical information finds your team, so they don’t have to go hunting for it. 

4. Resolution: I will deliver a personalized data experience

One-size-fits-all dashboards often fail. They either overwhelm junior employees with data that isn't relevant to them or lack the specific context that senior leaders need. This leads to low adoption and missed insights.

This year, resolve to move from generic content to personalized analytic experiences. The goal is to ensure that every user sees only the data that is relevant to their role and responsibilities. Use WebFOCUS's robust security model and parameterization to create dynamic content. A single, well-designed portal can serve hundreds of users, but when the VP of Sales logs in, she sees a national overview, while a regional manager in Georgia sees only their team's performance. This tailored approach makes analytics more relevant, less intimidating, and significantly more impactful.

Build a smarter 2026

These resolutions are more than just a checklist; they are a roadmap for building a more insightful, proactive, and collaborative analytics culture. By embracing these advanced strategies, you can leverage your WebFOCUS platform to deliver unprecedented impact in the year ahead.